USA > Indiana > Allen County > Fort Wayne > History of Fort Wayne, from the earliest known accounts of this point, to the present period. Embracing an extended view of the aboriginal tribes of the Northwest, including, more especially, the Miamies with a sketch of the life of General Anthony Wyane; including also a lengthy biography of pioneer settlers of Fort Wayne. Also an account of the manufacturing, mercantile, and railroad interests of Fort Wayne and vicinity > Part 42
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A branch was at once established at Fort Wayne, of which Judge HANNA was President much of the time, and Hon. Hugh McCulloch, present Secretary of the United States Treasury, Cashier, during the whole time of its continuance. The branches of this institution were generally well and discreetly managed, but ac- cording to a unanimous public sentiment, the Fort Wayne Branch was managed with pre-eminent skill and ability.
In 1836, Judge HANNA purchased the large remaining land interest of Barr and MeCorkle, adjoining, and surrounding the then plat of Fort Wayne. This pur- chase, although it ultimately proved very profitable, for many years, involved him in serious financial embarrassments. He immediately commenced laying off' and selling lots, but sules for some time were not rapid, money was exceedingly scarce, and most of those who did buy were unable to pay when their liabilities became due. Meanwhile, the interest on his large purchase had to be paid regularly. Moreover, such was his leniency towards his debtors, that he would, and did, for years, suffer every kind of inconvenience and pecuniary sacrifice, rather than press or distress them. Multitudes have comfortable homes to-day, in this city, who are indebted for them to the kindness and forbearance of Judge HANNA. It was a rule with him never to urge payment of any one who kept his interest paid up, and many were in arrears for even that for years together, without being disturbed.
In 1843, an outlet for produce and an inlet for people were opened by the open- ing of the canal to the Lake; the country began rapidly to settle, and the town to improve. The sale of lots was greatly augmented, money became more abundant, and payments more ready. Then Judge HANNA began to reap the benefits of his hazardous purchase-to enjoy the reward of his years of toil and embarrassments, and of his generous forbearance towards his poor debtors. "Hanna's Addition " is a very extensive and important part of the present city of Fort Wayne.
For several years succeeding 1836, Judge HANNA devoted himself, mainly, to the affairs of the Fort Wayne Branch Bank, to the management and improvement of his estate, and to the enjoyment of his domestic and social relations; accepting, occasionally, a seat in the Legislature of the State. During this period, his pet project, the Wabash and Erie Canal, was open to Toledo, working wonders in the developement of both town and country. But the ronds leading to Fort Wayne
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HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE.
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were in a wretched condition much of the time, and their improvement became a subject of vital necessity. The question as to how the desired improvement could be effected was extensively agitated. About this time the building of plank roads was coming into practice in some of the eastern states and in Canada. A gentle- man of this county, the late Jesse Vermilyea, visited and examined some of them, taking particular note of the manner of their construction and reported favorably. The idea was seized by Judge HANNA with avidity and acted upon with his accustomed promptness and energy. He and some other enterprising gentlemen, here and along the line, northward, immediately began to organize the Fort Wayne and Lima Plank Road Company and procure the stock subscriptions. The people were very solicitous for the road, but they were generally poor in money, and these subscriptions were almost entirely made in land, goods, labor, &c. About all the money used in building fifty miles of this road was borrowed of the Branch Bank, on the credit of the company ; and this was expended in building the necessary steam saw-mills. The first attempt to let contracts proved a failure. In order to give the work a start, Judge HANNA took the first ten miles north of Fort Wayne and went, personally, into the work ; superintending, directing, and with his own hands assisting in the most laborious operations. Others followed his example, and within about two years the road was completed te Ontario, a distance of fifty miles-the first improvement of the kind undertaken and completed in Northern Indiana. Other similar works followed in quick succession leading to Fort Wayne, among which was the Piqua Plank Road. In the construction of this, as in that of the Lima road, Judge HANNA was an active and leading participant. While others nobly did their whole duty, it cannot be denied that he was the Hercules, whose shoulder to the wheel propelled both of those works onward toward completion.
When the Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad reached Crestline, and it was pro- posed to extend it to Fort Wayne, under the name of the Ohio and Indiana Rail- road, Judge HANNA was ready with his powerful co-operation. He was largely instrumentalin inducing the people of Allen county to vote a subscription of $100- 000 to its capital stock. This was theturning point of the great enterprise at that time. Without this timely aid, the work would have been indefinitely postponed, if not entirely defeated. The project was strong in merit, but wenk in funds. It was difficult to find responsible parties who were willing to undertake the construc- tion of the work; but Judge HANNA, as in all else, was equal to the emergency. In 1852, he, in connection with our respected fellow citizen, Pliny Hoaglund, Esq., and the late Hon. Win. Mitchell, took the whole contract from Crestline to Fort Wayne, 132 miles, and immediately entered upon the prosecution of the work. After making some progress, the available means of the company became entirely exhausted, and the work was suddenly brought to a stand-still. A meeting of the directors was called at Bucyrus ; but the prospect presented was all dark and dubi- ous. No one could devise the ways and means to advance a step in the work. The case looked hopeless and desperate. Dr. Merriman, the President of the company, a most amiable and estimable gentleman. resigned in despair of rendering any fur- ther service. Judge HANNA was immediately elected to fill the vacancy occasioned by his resignation. In three days he was in the Eastern cities, pledging his indi- vidual credit and that of his coadjutors, Hoagland and Mitchell, for funds. This effected, without delay, he hastened to Montreal and Quebec, to redeem iron that had been forfeited for non payment of transportation. In this he was successful. The crisis was passed-light was ahead. Work was resumed. The Ohio and Indi- ana Railroad was again making progress, and in November, 1854, overcoming the most formidable obstacles, the cars from Pittsburg and Philadelphia, came roll- ing into Fort Wayne, waking the echoes of the wilderness as they came, and bring- ing hilarious joy and gladness to this hitherto isolated community. Then "was the town all a jubilee of feasts," festivity and exultation, such as it had never exhib- ited before, and possibly may nover exhibit again. It was the initial line of a system of railroads that are destined, at no distant day, to radiate from Fort Wayne, "like the spokes from the hub of a wheel."
In the autumn of 1852, while incumbered with the building and financial embar- rassments of the Ohio and Indiana Railroad, the Fort Wayne and Chicago Rail- road company was organized, and Judge HANNA Was elected President. "The means ef this company to prosecute the work were to be derived, mainly, from the
SAMURL. HANMA.
sale of the stock and bonds. The stock subscriptions which were paid in cash into the Treasury, were very small-amounting, perhaps, in all, to less than three per cent. on the final cost of building and equiping the road between Fort Wayne and Chicago. The stock subscriptions were paid, mostly, in uncultivated lands, farnis, town-lots, and labor upon the road. A large portion of the real estate thus con- veyed to the company in payment of subscriptions to stock, (over $1,000,000 in value,) was mortgaged by the company to obtain the necessary cash means to pay for grading the road-way." Other cash means had to be derived from the sale of bonds ; and, as the company had been but recently organized, with but little or no work done on its line of road, of course, its securities met with no ready sale. In the face of these discouraging circumstances, which would have overwhelmed almost any other man, Judge HANNA went resolutely to work on the new line. He was thus, President and chief manager of two companies-both without money, except what his own exertions provided-whose united lines extended from Crestline to Chicago, a distance of 280 miles, and a leading contractor for the construction of one of them. Instead of being overcome or depressed by this immense responsibility; instead of fainting or faltering under the load that would have crushed most other men, he was fully up to the occasion. The difficulties that surrounded him only nerved him to the exertion of his great powers. The brightness of his true character never blazed out in fuller effulgence. The greater the pressure, the greator was always his resources, and the greater the elasticity of his nature.
Under such adverse circumstances, as above alluded to, it was not to be expected that the work would progress with great rapidity. The Pennsylvania Central Rail- road Company extended a little assistance to the new enterprise, but not sufficient to effect any very decided result. In the beginning of 1856, however, the cars were running to Columbia City, and considerable grading had been done between that town and Plymouth, a distance of 45 miles further west.
During that year, it became apparent to many of the stockholders, as well as managers of the separate corporations, extending from Pittsburg to Chicago, and which, in fact, for all practical and business purposes, forined but one line, that the nterests and convenience of each, as well as of the public, would be promoted by merging their seperate existence into one great consolidated company. Judge HANNA early and earnestly espoused the cause of consolidation, and a meeting was called at Fort Wayne to consider and act upon the subject. Contrary to expectation, consid- erable opposition to the projected consolidation manifested itself at this meeting, headed and managed by the shrewd and talented Charles L. Boalt, encouraged and assisted by others hardly less astute. The debate was animated and exciting. The best talent on both sides was warmly enlisted. The contest extended to considerable length, and its issue appeared doubtful. Before the debate closed, Judge HANNA rose for a final appeal No one who heard that brief effort will forget it. It was a condensed array of facts and arguments-a splendid out-burst, of burning, earnest eloquence. The opposition was literally crushed out. The vote resulted in a large majority for consolidation-many who had opposed it in the beginning, voting in its favor. Thus, on the first day of August, 1856, the three minor corporations were obliterated on terms satisfactory to themselves, and the great Pittsburg, Fort Wayne, and Chicago Railroad Company succeeded to their franchises and liabilities.
The HIon. G. W. Cass was elected President, and Judge HANNA Vice President of the consolidated company ; the former holding the position until the prosent day, and the latter until his decease. Out of respect to the memory of the late incumbent, the vacancy has never since been filled.
The new arrangement infused new life and energy into the work. Jesse L. Williams, Esq., was appointed Chief Engineer, and under his vigorous management, in November, a little over three months after the consolidation, the road was open to Plymouth, sixty-six miles west of Fort Wayne. That section of the Cincinnati, Peru, and Chicago Railroad, extending from Plymouth to La Porte, and there con- meeting with the Southern Michigan and Northern Indiana Railroad, was opened for business about the same time ; thus giving, by the aid of two other lines, a through route from Pittsburg to Chicago. The idea was conceived, and gained some strength, of permitting the western terminus of the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne, and Chicago Road to rest at Plymouth for a while, perhaps indefinitely ; and of reaching Chi-
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HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE.
cago over the two other routes, by way of La Porte. This plan Judge HANNA opposed with even more than his usual vigor and ability, and was largely instru- mental in defeating it. Nothing less than a direct, independent line-the company's own line-would satisfy him. As the round-about arrangement, npon trial, proved disadvantageous to the company, it was abandoned, and the direct line pushed for- ward to an early completion.
While Judge HAMNA would never yield an iota of the interests of the company to any outside consideration, he was not unmindful of the interests of Fort Wayne, nor, perhaps, of his own individual interests. When those of the company could be as well, or better, subserved at Fort Wayne than elsewhere, he preferred Fort Wayne. Hence his untiring efforts for the establishment and building up, here, of the immense repair shops and manufactories that constitute so important a feature of Fort Wayne.
To him are we, mainly, if not entirely, indebted for the incalculable benefit derived from their location here. His sagacity foresaw their importance from the beginning, and he never, for a moment, lost sight of it. He had the aid and co-opera - tion of other able and influential men, but he had to encounter the determined opposition of others equally able and influential. Those who are familiar with the proceedings of the Board of Directors, from the time of the consolidation, on ward, know with what persistent industry and faithfulness he pursued this cherished object. Sometimes he advanced towards it by direct approaches-sometimes by strategy, or a "flank movement "-but he always advanced, never receded. Success was the work of years, but success was achieved at last, and the people of this city are now enjoying, and always will enjoy the fruits of those enduring, persevering, effective exertions for their benefit, that were silently, steadfastly prosecuted all those years, and of which few of them were aware until the work was consummated. Judge HANNA, by his wisdom, his moderation, his prudence, his conciliatory manners, possessed a standing, and exerted an influence in, the Board of Directors, equalled by few and surpassed by none ; and now, that he has ceased from his labors and gone to his reward, it is no disparagement to the other distinguished gentlemen who composed that Board, nor evidence of undue partiality on the part of his friends, when they regard him as having been "the noblest Roman of them all."
On the 12th day of June, 1866, the day after the death of Judge HANNA, & meeting of condolence was held at the Court House by the citizens of Fort Wayne, and addressed by Hon. Joseph K. Edgerton. At the risk of some repetition, the following truthful and eloquent passages are extracted from his address on that occasion *
" When I first knew Judge HANNA, he was a largo town proprietor in Fort Wayne, and a large Real Estate owner in Allen county-reputed rich in property, but poor in money-and all the powers of his mind and body seemed identified with and concentrated on the developement of his county, and the building up of Fort Wayne. He had before been an active coadjutor in the construction of the Wabash and Erie Canal, and,as one of the Fund Commissioners of Indiana, had in part borne well the heavy burden of managing the finances of the State, during the darkest period of its financial history.
The Wabash and Erie Canal, upon which great hopes had been based, had not realized those hopes. It had done much, but not all that was required, for the material developement of the Wabash Valley. It had helped Fort Wayne to grow from an Indian frontier trading post, to a thriving county town of some 2,000 or 3,000 people-but with the projection and construction of Railroads on the North and South of us, drawing to them the movement of men to the Northwest, Fort Wayne and Northern Indiana were passed by, and it plainly was not in the power of the Wabash and Erie Canal to save Fort Wayne from impending stagnation. No man more clearly saw this than did Judge HANXA, nor was more active and able in effort than he to avoid the impending evil.
A section of country so thinly peopled and so poor in money as ours was then, was not able to build railroads, and at first but little hope was felt, or effort made in that direction. Plank-roads, then & new and popular mode of public improvement-the materials and means for which were in our power -- were first looked to. to supply the growing want of caay transportation, and to them. Judge HANNA, chief among our citizens, directed his energies. He was a projector and activo and leading worker in the Fort Wayne and Lima Plank Road and in the Piqua Plank Road, two projects by which Fort Wayne sought to draw to itself a large Northern and Southern trade naturally belonging to it. Citizens of sixteen or eighteen years residence here, all know how faithfully Judge HANNA worked to build plank roade. With the efficient co-operation of Win. Mitchell, Drusua Nichols and other public spirited citl- zens in and out of Fort Wayne, the Lima Plank Road, fifty miles long, was built, and this soon led to the construction of the Bluffton. and, in part, the Columbia, the Goshen and the Piqua plank roads, all of which did their part and much, to advance the growth and prosperity of Fort Wayne.
JudgeJHANNA Rot only planned and worked with his head, but with his hands also, in building the Lima Plank Road. He was one of the contractors on that work, and I well remember seeing bim on one occasion, with ax in hand, superintending the work and showing the workmen how to lay the plank Plauk roads had their day-they were poor substitutes for the iron way, and tho locomotive power o steam.
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SAMUEL HANNA.
When that grand national line of railway, which is now the pride and strength of Fort Wayne, fand with which his name is forever identified, the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne and Chicago" Railway,; was first projected,-beginning with the section from Pittsburg to Massillon, thence from Massillon to Crestline, thence from Crestline to Fort Wayne, and finally developing in the grand idea of a consolidated contin- nous line of railway from Pittsburg to Chicago-Judge HANNA was among the first to see, to appreciate, and to take hold of the golden enterprise, that was, in ten years time, to bring up Fort Wayne from the condition zof anginsignificant county town, to rank and dignity among the first commercial and manufacturing towns of Indiana ; and not only to do that, but to make hundreds of miles of before wilderness country, to bear their golden grain, and to dot them over with thriving, busy towns and villages.
Judge HANNA early became identified with the Ohio and Indiana Railroad-the middle section be- tween Crestline and Fort Wayne-of what is now the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago road-on which work was commenced in the Spring of 1852. He was greatly instrumental in procuring the Indiana char- ter for this road, and the Allen County, Indiana, subscription of $100,000, and other county subscriptions in Ohio to aid in its construction. In 1852 he succeeded Dr. Merriman as President of the road, and became emphatically its leading spirit. In September, 1852, he was made first President of the Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad Company, on its organization at Warsaw. From that time until the reorganization of the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway Company in 1861-62. no man held a more important position, or took a more active or influential part in the completion and management of that line of railway than did Judge HANNA. His labor and devotion in the work were unceasing.
It was my fortune to be intimately associated with Judge HANNA in active railroad management from 1854 to the close of 1860. > I had abundant opportunity of knowing his zcal, his ability, his devotion, his untiring labor in the great work on which he had built his hopes of fertnne and a public name. The powerful corporation, now so strong and prosperous, measuring its annual income, by well-nigh half a score of millions of dollars, knew in its early history, both before and after the consolidation, many dark and gloomy hours. From the Fall of 1854 to the close of 1860, it passed through a fearful struggle, not only for the completion of its work, but for its own corporate and financial life. The financial disas- ters of 1857 found the consolidated company with an incomplete road, with meagre revennes, aud a broken credit. Many of its best friends, even among its own managers, were inclined to grow weary and to faint by the way. Through all this trying period no man worked more faithfully and hopefully, or was consulted more freely, or leaned upon with more confidence, than was .Judge HANNA. Ho was a tower of strength to an almost ruined euterprisc. HIe was at brief times gloomy and desponding, but he was a man of large hope, and a robust, physical organization, that eminently fittted him to stand up and toil on to a successful end. I think I may truly say, that no man who has ever been connected with! the management of the Pittsburg. Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad has had a larger share of confi- dence of all interested in it than Judge HANNA possessed. I have seen him in all phases of the com- juny's affairs, and in the midst of negotiations involving the most vital interests in Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburg, Philadelphia, and New York. Surrounded by the most sagacious financiers, and railway men of the country, such men as J. F. D. Lanier, Richard H. Winslow, John Ferguson, Charles Moran, J. Edgar Thomson, Wm. B. Ogden, George W. Cass, Amasa Stone, there was in Judge Hanna, a weight of character, a native sagacity and far-seeing judgment, and a fidelity of purpose to the public trust he rep- reseuted, that commanded the respect of all, and made him the peer of the ablest of them.
If I were to attempt to define most clearly Judgo Hanna's position and influence in the management of the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad, I would say that he was especially the advocato and guardian of the local interests of the road. Ile was ever watchful for the home stock-holders, the Jocal trade. the rights and interests of the towns and counties on the railway, and the rights and interests of the men who worked on the road. In those dark days, when the company could not, or did not, always pay its men, and suffering and strikes were impending, Judge Hanna sympathized with, and did all he could for, the men on the road who earned their daily bread by the work of their hands and the sweat of their brows.
Judge Hanna lived to see the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad a completed and emi- nently successful public work. He lived to see Fort Wayne, the city of his love. to which he came when it was but a trading post, with no town or even post office between it and Chicago, grown to a large and prosperous city. He lived to reap, as he deserved, large pecuniary rewards for his years of toil and risk and self-denial. He died peacefully in his own home, surrounded by the evidences of the material prosperity he had aided to promote.
In our cemetery of Lindenwood, there is a beautiful monument, which Judge Hanna's own fore- cast and good taste have already erected to his memory. It will ever be looked on with interest, but Samuel Hanna has a grander and more lasting monument in Fort Wayne itself. Of him may well be said here what is inscribed upon a marble tablet over the entrance to. the choir in St. Paul's Cathedral in London, to the memory of Sir Christopher Wren, its architect, 'Si Monumontum requiris circumspice.'
One marked feature of Judge Hanna's character was his untiring energy. It was not in his nature to cease to work, until he ceased to live. We have evidence of this as well as other marked char- acteristics, his hopefulness and self-reliance, in the zeal and energy with which, just before his death, he was entering upon a new field of public labor, the building of the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad, a project second only in its public importance, and in its bearing upon the interests of Fort Wayne, to the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad itself.
Knowing Judge Hanna, as I did, and of the influences he was able to bring to hear upon his new enter- prise, I have but little doubt that if he had lived and retained his mental and physical strength, but few years would have elapsed before the iron rails of the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railway would have stretched from Fort Wayne to Mackinaw. But, like other greatly useful public men, it was his fate, under the will of God, to die ere he seemed to have rounded the full sphere of his usefuluess.
It is perhaps not meet that I should say but a few words more as to the personal character and domes- tic habits of Judge Hanna. Most of you knew him well, for he went in and out before you for many years. Neither in person nor in mind was he what may be called a polished or educated man. He was a self-made man. He had received few advantages of early education. His was not a disciplined mind In the scholastic sense of the term. His teacher was the experience of an active and eventful life. He was eminently a man of affairs,-a practical man-not a man of minutæe or detail -not a particularly orderly or systematic man, but one of a large, clear mind, and of indomitable purpose, grasping with great power the saliont points and bearing and ond of a public question, and moving towards it, if not
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