USA > Indiana > Allen County > Fort Wayne > Charcoal sketches of old times in Fort Wayne > Part 6
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Number XVII
CHARCOAL SKETCHES OF OLD TIMES IN FORT WAYNE
DAILY SENTINEL
Fort Wayne, Thursday, April 25, 1872
Page 3, Col. 5-6
The First Marriage in Fort Wayne -- Doctor Edwards to Miss Hunt, 1803
By Hon. J. W. Dawson
The announcement of marriages are now so common in Fort Wayne that they excite interest only when the parties or perhaps one of them, are wealthy or connected with wealthy families. This only excites interest when the ceremony is imposing or the parties make it so by extravagant cards and more extravagant dress, or when the newspaper, now the educa- tor of the people, comes to their relief. But the marriage of Dr. Edwards to Miss Hunt, 1803, nearly three score and ten years gone by -- the first that ever was celebrated at this place by persons of our own race, make it, at this day, a matter of interest to all. I have therefore chosen it as the subject of a sketch.
The bride was the daughter of Colonel Thomas Hunt who served un- der General Wayne at the storming of Stony Point, during the Revolutionary War and father of General John E. Hunt, long resident of Maumee City, once Postmaster of Toledo, and brother-in-law of General Lewis Cass. He (Col. Hunt) also served under General Wayne in his expedition against the Indians on the Maumee River, and was afterwards promoted and left in command of Fort Defiance for about eighteen months, and was from thence ordered to Fort Wayne.
While here he obtained a furlough and in 1797 brought his family from Boston to this place, where his son General John E. Hunt was born, April, 1798. Here he remained until the death of Colonel Hamtramck (who built the Fort) which occurred about the year 1799, upon which Hunt was promoted to the Colonelcy of the old Ist Regiment, and ordered from Fort Wayne to Detroit. There he remained until 1803, and then was ordered with his regiment to Bellefontaine, Missouri, a small military station a few miles above St. Louis, on the Mississippi River. There he commanded until his death in 1807.
When he was on his way from Detroit to Bellefontaine, with his reg- iment coming up the Maumee River with fifty Montreal batteaux, and when he was nearing the landing at Fort Wayne, the commanding officer, Captain Whipple, was standing beside the Surgeon's mate, Dr. Edwards when the latter remarked to him, "Cap Whipple, that is a fine looking girl, " pointing to a daughter of Colonel Hunt, then with the family on a boat and about to land. It seemed that the daughter at the same time saw Dr. Edwards and remarked to her mother that, "That is a good looking young man."
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17
. . 1803 marriage of Dr. Edwards & Miss Hunt . .
April 25, 1872
Suffice it to say that here, in an Indian country, at a rude military post, with no etiquette other than that of elegance which the punctilio of a soldierly life demands and enforces, and with no society other than that a few officers and soldiers formed, these two young people formed and ma- tured an attachment in less than a fortnight, which in that time resulted in their marriage. This event was celebrated, perhaps, by the chaplain of the post -- if not, then by a civil contract between them by the solemn rec- ognition of the relation of husband and wife. The most distinguished guest at this wedding was Five Medals, a Potawatomi chief, whose village was then on Elkhart prairie, now in Elkhart County. This Indian was there by his own solicitation, to gratify his curiosity to see a marriage in civilized life -- so strangely in contrast with the purchase of a wife among his own savage race. It was said that he exhibited great pleasure in witnessing it.
The happy couple soon left on their bridal tour for Bellefontaine, and this hurried courtship and marriage, I am credibly informed, resulted in great happiness. Time wore on. The renowned victories of peace came. Dr. Edwards and his early and excellent sweetheart and wife, exchanged military life for that of civil, and the last I heard of them they were living in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in the full fruition of the delights of their fortui- tous meeting and romantic love and marriage . . .
Indiana had but two years before this marriage been organized as Indiana Territory, and hence there was really no civil jurisdiction exer- cised here at Fort Wayne at the period of which I write, (1803). This really remained so for many years thereafter. This place was conceded to be in Knox County, the seat of Justice of which was at Vincennes, then the seat of this Territorial Government and in fact so remained until many years later. Even in 1816 when an election was held for the election of delegates to form a State Constitution by a Convention at Corydon, Harrison County, this place was represented therein by John Badolett, John Benefiel, John Johnson, William Polk (who was Receiver of Public Moneys at this place under President Harrison, and died here), and Benjamin Parke. So late, even, as 1816, it was not known by the residents here, in what county Fort Wayne really was, so that Captain James W. Hackley, whom I have here- tofore noticed, desiring to marry Rebecca Wells, half-Indian daughter of Captain William Wells, sent to Piqua, Ohio, for a Justice of the Peace, and they were married by him.
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Number XVIII
CHARCOAL SKETCHES OF OLD TIMES IN FORT WAYNE
DAILY SENTINEL
Fort Wayne, Saturday, April 27, 1827
Page 3, Col. 5-6
Incidents in the Life of Judge William Polk
By Hon. J. W. Dawson
In my sketch of the 24th, the name of William Polk was incidentally alluded to, as one of the pioneers of this place, and a statement made that he was appointed Receiver of Public Moneys at this place, which being wrong, I correct it by saying, that it should have read that he was appointed Register of the Land Office for the Fort Wayne Land District.
With this correction, it is proposed to make Judge Polk* the subject of a brief sketch. The living owe it to their distinguished dead to perpetu- ate their memories, and the interest in such increases as passing time ex- tends the period between the transpired event and the present.
William Polk having figured so conspicuously in early times, it is peculiarly appropriate to notice him while passing in review the events of the past of this place.
He was a native of Virginia, born in 1775, and at seven years of age moved with his father's family to Nelson County, Kentucky. The country then was not emerged from the dangers of savage barbarity and warfare. In a very few years after his advent there, he and his mother and three sisters were taken prisoners by the Indians, deprived of nearly all their clothing which their captors burned, and in the exposed and destitute con- dition were conveyed through the wilderness to Detroit. There they re- mained about one year, and were then, through the interposition of friends, released and returned to their home in Kentucky. The outrageous treat- ment which they had in the beginning of their captivity received from the Indians incited young Polk to avenge it. At the age of nineteen he enlisted in the army commanded by General Wayne, and proceeded through North- western Ohio, via Fort Defiance, with that army, and was present at the location of the place where General Wayne ordered Colonel Hamtramck to erect a fort on September 18, 1794.
While here he received an injury from a fall which disabled him for some time. He, however, returned to Kentucky and there remained until about 1808, and then removed to Vincennes, then in Indiana Territory (Knox Co.), where he was again exposed to the dangers incident to frontier life. The Indians were now making depredations on defenseless settlers, in vio- lation of their treaty of friendship concluded at Greenville, in 1795 -- incited by Tecumseh. Judge Polk felt again called on to enlist, and did so under General Harrison, who marched from Harrison (near Terre Haute) up the Wabash. On November 7, 1811, he encountered the combined Indian forces at Tippecanoe, and though victorious, suffered terrible loss. At this battle
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April 27, 1872
Judge Polk was wounded.
He was a member of the Constitutional Convention which framed the first State constitution in 1816 -- representing, with others named in the preceding sketch, this region then in Knox County. He was often after a Representative in the State Legislature -- was in 1830 appointed Commis- sioner of Michigan road, (a great thoroughfare constructed by the State, beginning at Michigan City and passing Plymouth, Rochester, Logansport, to Indianapolis, and then by Shelbyville, Greensburg, Napoleon, and to Madison, on the Ohio River), a trust which he performed efficiently and honestly. Those now living, who in a early day had occasion to pass the Michigan pioneer, recall him as a hospitable host at the crossing of Tippe- canoe River in Fulton County .
On the election and inauguration of General Harrison as President of the United States, that illustrious patriot remembered the brave Polk, his former companion in arms, then in his 66th year, and appointed him Register of the Land Office at this place -- a position which perhaps was then worth a salary of $500, and prerequisites another $500, on which he subsisted until April 20, 1843, when he died, and was buried by our citi- zens with the honors of war.
*Judge Polk, while living here, called on the venerable Mrs. Laura Suttenfield, and invited her to accompany him, and he would show her with- in a few feet of where General Wayne struck his sword and ordered Colonel Hamtramck to place the flagpole and build a fort around it, as he did. This point Judge Polk designated about the centre of Main Street, a hundred feet west of where the west line of the Fort-lot now strikes the street. This, perhaps, will settle a disputed point, as nearly as it is possible to do now.
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Number XIX
CHARCOAL SKETCHES OF OLD TIMES IN FORT WAYNE
DAILY SENTINEL
Fort Wayne, Tuesday, April 30, 1872
Page 3, Col. 5-6
Recollections of Counselor Cooper
By Hon. J. W. Dawson
I have no means in my power to derive minute information relative to the early life of Henry Cooper, Esq., deceased. What was once familiar in regard to the scenes of his boyhood and early manhood, as often related to me, have, owing to the faithlessness of human memory, been forgotten, hence the reader must be satisfied with a leaf from memory, which is here and there left in my mind.
Mr. Cooper was a native of Maryland. He early chose a sea-faring life, during which service he visited many parts of the world -- as I have often heard him relate. Whether by nature or habit acquired, I know not, but in him were combined as much courage and as tender feelings as in any other man I ever knew. Those of us who used to travel with him through this Judicial Circuit, as well as they who so often journeyed with him from here to Indianapolis to attend the Supreme Court of Indiana, and the Circuit and District Federal Courts, also held there, well know, and can verify what I say in regard to his courage and benevolence. So remarkable was he in the latter quality, that whatever was pathetic in the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or whatever was calculated to appeal to the finer feelings of gentlemen of the bar, were sure to suffuse the eyes of Mr. Cooper with tears, and break down his voice from the deep emotions that were excited within his great rugged, but noble breast. One might, now and then, begin a smile at this weakness, but so purely and so heartfelt and unaffected his utterances, that we all, from grave to gay, found our- selves of a sudden drying our eyes and hushing the tremendous emotions which stole into our breasts ere we were aware.
When he came here, I do not know but it was at a very early day. He was occupied as a schoolteacher a part of the time -- at one time in that capacity he presided over a school in the old county jail. He was admitted to the bar to practice as an attorney and counselor at law at the second term of the Allen Circuit Court begun and held on June 6, 1825 at the house of Alexander Ewing -- which court was presided over by Honorable Bethuel F. Morris -- Judge Samuel Hanna, Associate. I think he had lived some time prior to his advent here, in Kentucky, and it was while there perhaps, he became acquainted with Miss Mary, daughter of Judge Silver, of North Bend, Ohio, and whom he afterwards married. On reaching here he seemed to have two warrants for the location of lands, commonly called "Canadian Warrants." The owner had agreed with Mr. Cooper, that he would give him one for locating the other. He did this and located his own on a quar-
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April 30, 1872
ter section just west, halt of a mile, from where New Haven is, in this county -- the farm now owned by Mr. Beugnot. There he began to make an improvement at a very early day. By the aid of borrowed books, which he read by night fires kindled by brush and logs, he acquired much of that legal knowledge for which he was in later years justly celebrated. His industry and proverbial honesty, added to his professional qualifications soon brought him a lucrative practice. From this he was able to purchase valuable property, the rise in the value of which, in a few years placed him in good circumstances. With the Judges and officers of court in this region and with the members of the Bar, he stood high and was justly entitled to be called "Father of the Bar" of Fort Wayne, and it was cheerfully accorded to him. He was most remarkable for the fullness of his knowledge of the law, precedents and judicial decisions. He could call from his memory the general law on almost any subject -- and refer to the current of authorities wherein a given case had to be adjudicated. Nevertheless, he did seem to lack the faculty to make such discriminations between the case before him and the one decided in the books as was equal to his reputation and profes- sional standing.
His domestic habits were of the purest order . . . his home was a paradise which anyone might envy. His wife and three children were idol- ized; but in April 1815 she died, and then came days of woe, which I saw with sorrowing heart and tearful eyes; and which I omit further noticing. Many jokes are told of him, and, indeed, he was fond of one whether he or another was the subject. A joke was played on him on the occasion of a party of lawyers leaving here on horseback for the Supreme Court at Indi- anapolis. It was arranged that all should start together, but Mr. Cooper was slow, and the rest of the company started ahead. On reaching the forks where the Indianapolis road leaves the now gravel road, they con- ceived a joke to play on Mr. Cooper. They requested every teamster or traveler whom they might meet going into Wayne, to tell the old gentleman, whom they would meet, riding a sorrel horse and wearing a drab greatcoat, that they, the gentlemen ahead, had requested that he should be informed that they had found his tar bucket! This acted like a charm. It was told to Mr. Cooper so often by travelers meeting him, that when he saw any one approaching he would spur up "Old Charley" and give no opportunity for a further repetition of the joke. How he treated the "boys" when he caught up with them, will be well imagined by those who know him, and who yet live. I, however, will not attempt a description.
The political campaign of 1840, between General Harrison and Pres- ident Van Buren, was perhaps the most hotly contested one that the country ever witnessed, and caused great mortification to the Democrats here and elsewhere, when it was known that General Harrison was elected. Mr. Cooper, being an ardent Whig and a friend of General Harrison, and his wife, a distant relative of Mrs. Harrison, felt great joy at the result. In this mood, on a certain sunny day, soon after the result of the election was known, he was seen passing our principal streets carrying a lighted lantern and looking carefully into the by-places as he went along. This conduct
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April 30, 1872
called out the inquiry as to what he meant by it. He replied: "I am hunting for a Democrat." The joke was well enjoyed by all, Whigs and Democrats. Since that period, Whigs and Democrats alike have witnessed defeat. Whigs, strange to say, have mostly adopted views on slavery which were invari- ably then disclaimed by their leaders. They have gradually been committed to arbitrary measures and constitutional interpretations which would have made ship-wreck of the party had it dared to avow them then. But lest some over-zealous Republican friend of mine may take issue with this assertion, I will introduce the platform of principles adopted at Baltimore, May 1, 1844, and on which Henry Clay was nominated for President. Once a Whig, I know whereof I speak, and my "Charcoal Sketches" will not be marred by this bit of history.
WHIG PRINCIPLES
1. An honest and economical administration of the Government.
2. A sound currency, of uniform value.
3. Fair and moderate, but certain and stable encouragement to all branches of industry.
4. Peace and union; peace as long as it can be preserved with hon- or; preparation for vigorous war when it is inevitable; union at all hazards.
5. Men only of character, fidelity and ability appointed to public office.
6. Just limitations and restraints upon the Executive power.
7. A distribution of the proceeds of the sales of the public lands among all the States, on just and liberal terms.
8. A just administration of our common Constitution, without any addition to, or abstraction from, the powers which it fairly confers, by forced interpretation.
9. The preservation exclusively by the States of their local and peculiar institutions.
On every living principle of that platform every Old Whig of the Clay and Webster school ought this day to stand. I may say that the 7th text is out of existence, but the rest are what every Democrat in the land, avows in opposition to General Grant's administration policy -- and is the very sentiment which on May 1, 1872, will be avowed in Convention at Cin- cinnati, Ohio, by the Liberal Republicans of the whole nation in protesta- tion of the misrule and threatened despotism of President Grant and his dangerous advisers and dependents, and with a like declaration of princi- ples every Democrat in the land ought to be, and I hope is, in accord.
Turning now to Mr. Cooper: I said in outset -- that he was brave, and so he was. Caesar was no braver. On a cold Saturday afternoon in April 1743, Mr. Cooper, David H. Colerick, Esq., and myself after the adjournment of the Spring Term of the Noble Circuit Court, held at Augus- ta -- where I a few weeks before had located in the practice of the law -- started from Augusta all bound to Fort Wayne. Our afternoon repast was
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April 30, 1872
light, our whisky not plenty nor good. Mr. Cooper had his sorrel horse "Charley" that was brave and strong enough for any occasion. Mr. Col- erick was riding his excelsior roan "Charley, " and I on a poor old gray, borrowed of that celebrity of Augusta, Charles D. Shearer. The roads were bad, winds high, and evening cold. I, from necessity, had a rear position, and hence could see my companions in danger. The road was new, and the wind drove the decaying bark in loads from the trees. Coo- per would rarely dodge, but Colerick seemed to have not as much liking for such things as his "Charley, " and would now and then dodge as quick as a bird, while I was unobserved, but not a little concerned. It was dark be- fore we reached Heller's Corners, and time hung heavily, from cold, fa- tigue and hunger. Our great anxiety was, how to cross the St. Mary's, then near midnight. We reached the river at the foot of Calhoun Street. We found when we got to the south end a deep sheet of water from there to where the County Jail stands. The embankment was narrow and the water of doubtful depth. Above, below, and around was a sheet of swift water. Dan- ger, it seemed, was just ahead. We held a breathless parley in pantomine. Cooper soon spurred "Charley" into the flood. Colerick's "Charley" ad- vanced breast-deep, and instinctively turned back; but, as of a second thought, turned and followed Cooper. My gray followed the roan, and there we were. Though I had no children nor wife to mourn my death, as they had, I felt that there would be a funeral transpire in this city very soon. Cooper seemed to rely on "Charley's" power, and when Colerick limbered his legs up along the back of his "Charley, " I supposed he felt that it was no time to swap horses while crossing a stream. I could rely nothing on my horse, if he should get below the road, and felt that my only safety was in my warm blood and strong young limbs, and resolved to make the best of what God had blessed me with. But the two Charley's and Gray proved equal to the occasion, and bore their grateful riders to the safe side of Jordan. As soon as terre firma was reached Mr. Colerick ejacu- lated thanks for deliverance. Cooper laughed at his implied fear -- put spurs to Charley, and soon we were in the city -- and parted hoping no more to be compelled to imperil our lives in that manner. It was perhaps the last.
In a few months I left my practice in Noble County, and returned here, and was the daily companion of Mr. Cooper till 1848, when ill health compelled me to quit the place . . .
On the morning of March 26, 1853, he died. On the same day at a meeting of the Bar of the place, appropriate resolutions were passed and ordered to be spread on the order books of the Circuit and Common Pleas Court, but I regret to say that this was omitted.
In conclusion I may say that if all the members of the Bar of this region who knew Henry Cooper, were consulted, and they who are dead could speak, and they should direct me to write on his humble gravestone, it would be contained in these words:
"HERE LIES AN HONEST MAN."
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Number XX
CHARCOAL SKETCHES OF OLD TIMES IN FORT WAYNE
DAILY SENTINEL
Fort Wayne, Monday, May 6, 1872
Page 3, Col. 5-6
The Names of Our Rivers and Creeks -- Their Origin and Meaning
By Hon. J. W. Dawson
The title of my Charcoal Sketch for today was suggested by a per- version of a name which appears on the old Allen County map, published in 1860, by R. J. Skinner Middleton Strobridge & Company, and intended to designate a creek which takes its rise in Springfield Township and flows in a southeasterly direction through the south half of Scipio Township, across the line between Indiana and Ohio, and into the Maumee River in the neigh- borhood of Antwerp, though on the opposite side of the river. On the map it is written in plain letters "Mary Delome, " and this name may serve the purpose of recognition, as well as any, but it is always best to preserve names in their purity, that ultimate confusion may be avoided. To this end I will make the proper correction of the perverted name of the stream. The respective names of our rivers, creeks and prairies were given prin- cipally by the French explorers, at so very early a day only a faint gleam is left in the tradition that no written record is extant, and hence of the times. The imperfect record of the time so long gone by having been lost, I meet with the same difficulty that historians and antiquarians, and even translators, have met whenever they have attempted to present to the living present the truth of bygone years.
These French explorers attempted always to give names to streams, to places and natural aspect of which was novel or distinguished, and to villages, settlements and prairies, which had an appropriate signification. Hence, the creek known on the map of Allen County, as Mary Delome was distinguished for its marshy character; and as the elm tree was by far the most abundant of the woody growth, on it, the French gave it its appropri- ate and significant appellation -- Marais, meaning a swamp, and de Lorme Elm, and therefore when written in one term, is Marais de Lorme, or Elm Swamp Creek. This should be corrected on future maps, and the proper names re-established in common use.
As a matter of history, it is quite in place to give a name to another stream, or rather revive an old and nearly forgotten name of the creek which the traveler will cross as he shall pass over the road from this city to Huntington on the south side of Little River and its marsh, on the farm of Mr. Horney Robinson, a pioneer whom I have known to reside there for over thirty-four years, in Section 36, Township 30, Range 11. This creek was in early day regarded as a place of safety for the neighboring Indians to which they sent their women and children when they went to war with
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May 6, 1872
other tribes. Therefore, the Canadian French, who from time immemorial mingled largely with the Indians, gave this creek the name, La Coulee des Enfants, the run or creek of the children; or to render it into more accept- able English, it may be written Children's Creek. The creek beyond that on this same road is properly called Langlois Creek, from Peter Langlois, a Frenchman, who early lived among the Miami Indians, was adopted by, and married among them, and who was, in 1861, still living, a resident of Tippecanoe County, Indiana. He received his annuity from my hands when in that year I was Special Agent, appointed by the United States to pay the Miamis, who were resident in Indiana and Michigan, and who were exempt by the last Treaty of the Miamis from removal to Kansas.
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