The pictorial history of Fort Wayne, Indiana : a review of two centuries of occupation of the region about the head of the Maumee River, Vol. I, Part 18

Author: Griswold, B. J. (Bert Joseph), 1873-1927; Taylor, Samuel R., Mrs. The story of the townships of Allen County
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Chicago : R.O. Law Co.
Number of Pages: 760


USA > Indiana > Allen County > Fort Wayne > The pictorial history of Fort Wayne, Indiana : a review of two centuries of occupation of the region about the head of the Maumee River, Vol. I > Part 18


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A REPRODUCTION OF THE ONLY EXISTING ORIGINAL DRAWING OF OLD FORT WAYNE MADE BY MAJOR WHISTLER IN 1816.


Through the co-operative efforts of the Burton Historical Collection of the Detroit Public Library and J. Franklin Jameson, director of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, the author was enabled, in 1915, to find and identify a drawing made in August, 1816, by Major John Whistler, commandant of Fort Wayne. Major Whistler had rebuilt the fort during 1815 and 1816. The drawing had been sent to General A. D. Macomb, at Detroit, who forwarded it to the war department. The drawing shows the ground floor plan of the fort, together with the inside elevation of each building, as well as the elevation of each building outside the pickets. The outside lines indicate the location of the palisades. The present Old Fort Park area was located within the square shown in the drawing. The drawing of Whistler doubtless is the only existing original draft of old Fort Wayne. A drawing by General Wayne, in the war department, was destroyed when the British captured the city of Washington in 1814.


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THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE


birth, at Fort Wayne, of a son, John Elliott Hunt-the first child born within the stockade of old Fort Wayne. This son rose to prominence in the military and political affairs of Ohio during a long and useful life. His earlier years were passed with his elder brother, Henry Hunt, a Detroit merchant, after which he engaged in business at Maumee City, Ohio. He was in Detroit at the time of Hull's surrender of that post to the British in 1812 and "a witness to that humiliating spectacle." He was married at the home of General Lewis Cass, in Detroit, to Miss Sophie Spencer, daughter of a Connecticut physician. As a leader in many public enterprises, a railroad promoter, state senator, treasurer of Lucas county, Ohio, and postmaster at Detroit, he exerted a wide influence.


The name of Ruth Fessenden Hunt, daughter of Colonel Hunt, comes into the narrative naturally at this point, though the occasion which suggests it is given a place out of its order in point of time. She was Fort Wayne's first American bride, although, of course, many wedding ceremonies had been solemnized in the early French villages which occupied the site. This interesting event occurred in 1805-indeed, after the term of service of Major Hunt at Fort Wayne had ceased. It was while in command of Detroit that Colonel Hunt received orders to transfer his command to Bellefontaine, near St. Louis, Missouri. En route to Fort Wayne at the same time was Dr. Abraham Edwards, who had been assigned to the post as surgeon. Upon the arrival of the Hunts and Dr. Edwards, the engagement was announced, and the ceremony was performed without delay by Captain William Wells, serving as a justice of the peace. Details of the event are lacking, but there remains in the possession of the relatives of Dr. Edwards (passing through the hands of a son, A. M. Edwards, of Sheboygan, Michigan) this certificate in the handwrit- ing of Captain Wells:


"Fort Wayne, 4th June, 1805. I do hereby certify that I joined Dr. Abraham Edwards and Ruthie Hunt in the Holy Bonds of Matrimony on the 3rd instant, according to law. Given under by hand and seal the day and year above written.


"WILLIAM WELLS, ESQ."


Dr. Edwards, who served for five years as the post surgeon, was born at Springfield, New Jersey, in 1781. In 1804, President Jeffer- son appointed him a garrison surgeon and Secretary of War Dear- born sent him to Fort Wayne, by way of Detroit, where he met his future wife. Three of the eldest children of Dr. and Mrs. Edwards -Thomas, Alexander and Henry-were born at Fort Wayne. In 1810, on account of the illness of Mrs. Edwards, the family removed to Dayton, Ohio. Dr. Edwards was chosen as a member of the Ohio legislature, gave good service as a captain under Harrison in the war of 1812, served as a witness in the courtmartial of General William Hull, and was appointed department quartermaster-deputy at Pittsburg, with the rank of major. In 1815, he removed to De- troit, where he was appointed first aide to General Lewis Cass, with the rank of colonel. He was the president of the first legislative council of Michigan territory, register of the land office, Indian agent and a presidential elector who voted for Franklin Pierce.


Our narrative has carried us beyond the period of the story of Colonel Hunt's administration of affairs at Fort Wayne. That his


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THE FORT IN THE WILDERNESS


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service here did not escape the criticism of his superiors appears from a communication sent to him by Secretary of War Dearborn, in which he said :


"The reasons you offer for sending an express to Detroit are not sufficiently explicit. * * I have too much reason for be- lieving that you are not as attentive to the rules and regulations relating to the expenses at the different posts as might be expected from an officer of your rank and experience. It seems to have become fashionable for officers to be much less attentive to minute parts of their duty than to other considerations which relate more to private convenience than to the good of the service."


COLONEL HUNT BUILDS A NEW FORT WAYNE


Nevertheless, it is apparent that Colonel Hunt devoted his energies to the betterment of conditions at Fort Wayne, for it was he who undertook the responsible task of building a new fort, to take the place of the original, hastily-constructed blockhouses and pickets erected by General Wayne's troops six years before. It is believed that Colonel Hunt finished his fort in 1800, shortly before his departure.


A portion of Chapter XIX is devoted to a discussion of the loca- tion of Wayne's original fort and the later forts built by Colonel Hunt and Major Whistler; so the question at this point needs but the statement that the original fort of Wayne is believed to have occupied a site which enclosed the lot at the northwest corner of the present East Berry and Clay streets, while Colonel Hunt built the new fort a short distance to the northward, enclosing the area of the present Old Fort Park.


The last visit of Colonel Hunt to Fort Wayne was in 1805, when the family stopped for a week's rest while on the way from Detroit to Bellefontaine. En route to their new home, the Hunts were the guests, at Vincennes, of Governor William Henry Harrison.


Colonel Henry Burbeck became the commandant of Fort Wayne in the spring of 1803, but his administration was cut short by the anouncement of the death of Colonel Hamtramck, at Detroit, and his transfer to that place to have charge of the department of the lakes. Colonel Burbeck was a native of Boston, born June 8, 1754, and had served through the Revolutionary war. He was a son of Colonel William Burbeck, also a veteran of the war for independence. Beginning as a lieutenant in Gridley's regiment of Massachusetts artillery, which was mustered into service May 19, 1775, successive advancements found Henry Burbeck as the second of the nation's chief of artillery (succeeding Henry Knox), serving in Wayne's western campaign. It was he who built Fort Recovery, in Ohio. After the battle of Fallen Timber, Burbeck was placed in command of Michilimackinac, where he remained from September, 1796, to November, 1799. He returned to the east in July, 1800, and assisted in the establishment of West Point Military academy. In the spring of 1803, he was sent to the west and was placed in command of Fort Wayne. Later in his career, Burbeck was brevetted brigadier- general. His death occurred at New London, Connecticut, October 2, 1848.


THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE


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THE FORT IN THE WILDERNESS


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THE FIRST GOVERNMENT SURVEY OF THE REGION OF FORT WAYNE.


This map, which was found in 1915 in the war department archives, while J. Franklin Jameson, director of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, was assisting the author in securing important data, and where it had lain for one hundred and twelve years, was made by Thomas Freeman, a government engineer, in June, 1803. This was the first government survey of the region about Wayne's fort. From a notation on the map the following quotation is made: "The black and shaded lines of the reservations have been run and marked. Posts have been set in the ground 100 perches apart, on the east and west lines, and numerically numbered, as appears on the plan. The tree nearest each post has been lettered U. S. and numbered with the number of the post near which it stands. * * * The mile square including Fort Wayne and the confluence of the Rivers St. Mary and St. Joseph is the Military Reservation."


"The death of Colonel Hamtramck, in addition to the loss of such an experienced and valuable officer, has so materially interfered with the arrangement of that department as to render your presence


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THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE


at Detroit necessary. You will, therefore, be pleased to repair to Detroit and take command of the Department of the Lakes. Colonel [Thomas] Hunt will remain at Michilimackinac until further orders. Major [Zebulon] Pike should, on your arrival, repair to Fort Wayne."


On the following day, Secretary Dearborn wrote a letter to Major Pike in which he said :


"I have proposed that on the arrival of Colonel Burbeck, you


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THE ANTHONY WAYNE FLAG.


This valuable relic is owned by Dr. P. G. Moore, of Wabash, Indiana, who loaned the photograph from which the drawing was made. Dr. Moore says: "The flag was presented by General Wayne to Chief She-moc-o-nish, of Thornton, Indiana, after the close of the Indian war in 1795, by order of Gen- eral Washington, with the following suggestion: 'Keep this flag in sight, and, as often as you see it, remember we are friends. I first saw the flag in 1868, when it was in the possession of Mrs. Dixon, an old Indian woman of Miami county, Indiana, a granddaughter of She-moc-o-nish by his second wife, who was a member of the Wea tribe. I became its possessor in 1884, after her death. I obtained its history from Kil-so-quah, then living near Roanoke, Indiana, at the age of 103 years. She also was a granddaughter of She-moc- o-nish and of Little Turtle on the pater_ nal side. She told me she kept the flag a good many years, when it fell into the hands of the Dixon woman. At my first interview she said the flag had been burned in a tepee, but when I showed it to her she recognized it quickly and said that the Weas had told her of its destruction in order to keep it among members of the tribe. The flag is three feet and eight inches by five feet and ten inches in size. It is in a good state of preservation and the colors are bright."


LITTLE TURTLE.


Jacob Piatt Dunn, of Indianapolis, who has spent many years as a student of the aborigines, pronounces the Miami chief to have been "the greatest Indian the world has known." Little Turtle spent much of his time on the site of the present city, during which period he became the only Indian leader to defeat an army of the United States led by a commander-in-chief. He was the first of the savage leaders to recognize the necessity of submission to the power of the whites. He became not only & firm friend of the United States, but, by repeated visits to the national seat of government, he secured for his people many reforms to lift them from the degradation brought through the use of intoxicating liquors and demoralizing habits, and sought to teach the great lessons of industry and upright living. He died at Fort Wayne in 1812, two weeks before his illustrious son-in- law, Captain William Wells, was killed in the Fort Dearborn massacre. The portrait is after a copy of the painting from life by Stuart, the painter of the Washington portrait. The portrait was made during one of several visits of Little Turtle to eastern cities. The original painting was destroyed by fire when the British attacked the city of Washington in 1814.


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THE FORT IN THE WILDERNESS


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should repair to Fort Wayne and command at that post, where you will have leisure to attend to your health and will receive the emolu- ment attached to the command of a separate post."


The original letters from Secretary Dearborn are in the War Department at Washington. The quotations are from photostatic copies in the Burton Historical Collection at Detroit.


Major Zebulon Pike was the father of Zebulon M. Pike, who earned fame as the explorer of the region now comprising the states of the southwestern portion of the union. He was born in New Jersey, in 1751. He entered the service of the Revolution as a corporal and served to the end of the war. He was promoted to the rank of major in 1800. In the organization of the peace establishment in 1802, Major Pike was assigned to the First regiment of infantry, under the command of Colonel Hamtramck. He was brevetted lieutenant-colonel in the regular army July 10, 1812. While his son, Zebulon M. Pike, was a child, he removed with his family to Bucks county, Pennsylvania, and thence in a few years to Easton, Pennsylvania. He returned to the west, however, and his death occurred at Lawrenceburg, Indiana, in 1834.


Major Pike came to assume the command of Fort Wayne in June, 1803. He retained the office less than one year. His successor was Major John Whipple of the First United States infantry, who had served in the Revolution and with Wayne on his western cam- paign. The wife of Major Whipple was Archange Pelletier, grand- daughter of Jean Baptiste Pelletier, of the famous family of which Francois Pelletier was the head. Francois preceded Cadillac to Detroit by two years, reaching that point in 1669. The present-day Peltier family, with representatives in Fort Wayne, is descended from this ancient French stock.


During the period of the administrations of Hamtramck, Pas- teur, Hunt, Burbeck, Pike and Whipple, the national administration gave serious consideration to the problem of adopting a fitting form of government of the great western frontier. The British, after their abandonment of Detroit, had erected a strong post on the Canadian side of the Detroit river, at Malden (the present Amherst- burg), from which point disturbing elements were constantly at work among the Indians to interfere with the constructive efforts of the American government.


In August, 1796, Winthrop Sargent, secretary of the Northwest Territory, proclaimed the organization of Wayne county, with Fort Wayne on its southern boundary, a line drawn between the Cuya- hoga river and the lower point of Lake Michigan. This original Wayne county was divided into four townships, bearing the names of Detroit, Mackinaw, Sargent and Hamtramck, with the region of Fort Wayne and the Maumee valley included in the latter. In October, 1799, William Henry Harrison, then serving as secretary of the Northwest Territory, was elected to represent the great west in the national congress. This body, on the 7th of May, 1800, created the Territory of Indiana, composed of all that part of the territory of the United States west of a line beginning at the Ohio river oppo- site the mouth of the Kentucky river and running northward to the straits of Mackinac. By this change, Fort Wayne was removed from the original Wayne county.


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THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE


In December, 1801, the war department in an official recom- mendation relative to the maintenance of the government posts, stated that Fort Wayne contained one company of infantry. In March, 1802, an Act of Congress refers to Fort Wayne as "a frontier post with garrison of sixty-four men." In the following year, the post had a garrison of fifty-one men, namely, one captain, one sur- geon's mate, one first lieutenant, one second lieutenant, one ensign, four sergeants, four corporals, three musicians, and thirty-five pri- vates. (See American State Papers, Military Affairs, Vol. I, pages 156, 175, 786).


The name of William Henry Harrison, soon to figure strongly in the narrative of Fort Wayne, comes into the story with the ac- count of Wayne's campaign. Then, after his appointment as secre- tary of the Northwest Territory, we find him, in 1799, resigning this position to take a seat in congress as a representative of this vast district northwest of the Ohio. On the 4th of July, 1800, the terri- tory of Indiana came into existence, with Harrison as its governor, and Vincennes its capital.


HARRISON DISPLEASED WITH WELLS.


Harrison, on assuming his office, proceeded promptly to enter into treaty agreements with the Indians for the purchase of their large tracts of land in what are now the States of Indiana, Michigan and Illinois. On the 7th of June, 1803, he completed, at Fort Wayne, a treaty with the Eel River, Kaskaskia, Kickapoo, Miami, Delaware and Piankeshaw tribes for the attainment of a large tract about Vincennes which already had been purchased from other tribes. He also secured from the Delawares their lands between the Wabash and Ohio rivers, and from the Piankeshaws their claims to tracts deeded to the United States by the Kaskaskias in the pre- ceding year. This latter treaty was the source of a good deal of worry and controversy.


The cause of Harrison's disturbed condition of mind appears to have been the powerful opposition of Captain William Wells, and his father-in-law, Chief Little Turtle of the Miamis. Wells had received the appointment of Indian agent and was stationed at Fort Wayne at the time Harrison concluded these important treat- ies. His attitude toward Harrison was such as to cause that officer to write to Secretary of War Dearborn, March 3, 1805:


"Those [Indians] who have expressed discontent have been instigated thereto entirely by the Turtle. Whether the opposition to those treaties originated with himself or with Mr. Wells I cannot determine, but that the opinions of one are the opinions of the other I have long known. * * When Wells speaks of the Miami nation being of this or that opinion, he must be understood as mean- ing no more than the Turtle and himself. Nine-tenths of that tribe, who acknowledge Richardville and Pecanne as their chiefs (but who are really governed by an artful fellow called the Owl, or Long Beard, whom you once saw at the seat of government) utterly abhor both Wells and the Turtle."


A short time afterward, Governor Harrison wrote:


"I am convinced that this man [Wells] will not rest until he


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THE FORT IN THE WILDERNESS


1794 1805


has persuaded the Indians that their very existence depends upon the rescinding [of] the treaty of the Delawares and the Pianke- shaws. My knowledge of his character induces me to believe he will go to any length to carry a favorite point, and mischief may come from his knowledge of the Indians, his cunning and his perse- verance. If I had not informed you that I should wait here your further orders, I would set out tomorrow [from Vincennes] for Fort Wayne."


The governor decided not to make the move, however, explain- ing to the secretary of war that it "would be a sacrifice of that


CAPTAIN WILLIAM WELLS.


1


Captain Wells was one of the most re- markable men connected with the his- tory of Fort Wayne and the entire fron- tier. In recognition of his services to his country, congress gave him the right to pre-empt the lands which now com- prise the districts in Fort Wayne known as Bloomingdale and Spy Run-"the Wells Pre-emption." His tragic death in the Fort Dearborn massacre in 1812 brought to an end a life which did much to shape the history of the middle west.


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Men She. Kun @ ( or little Turtle que


Im HoHarrison and we camp to me Wayne


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Bee gee wa for Ruhardwelle /


A Laselle


Naphington


By the President Timothy Pickering


SOME OF THE GREENVILLE TREATY SIGNATURES.


From the many signatures attached to the treaty of Greenville, which marked the close of the Indian wars in 1795, have been selected those best known to the present generation. The productions are from the fac similes accompanying an article by Fraser E. Wilson in the "Ohio Archaeological and Historical So- ciety Publications" (vol. xiii). Mr. Wil- son's article throws many interesting sidelights on the character of Little Turtle.


dignity and authority which it is necessary to observe in all our transactions with the Indians."


The bitterness of the sentiment of Harrison against Wells at this time is further shown in a communication to Secretary Dear- born in July, 1805, in which he said :


"I think measures should be taken to control his vicious inclina- tions or to remove him from the Indian country. I had determined to inform him of the suspicions which had arisen against him, and to order him to come to this place [Vincennes] for the purpose of explaining his conduct, but thought it best to delay it until I could receive your instructions. If an inquiry should be made into his conduct, I must beg leave to recommend that General Wilkinson may assist at it. It will be very little trouble for the general to come over to this place for a few days, and I am satisfied the trip would not be disagreeable to him."


In June, 1805, Harrison sent to Fort Wayne Colonel John Gibson, secretary to Governor Harrison, and Colonel Francis Vigo,


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THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE


who, on their arrival, visited the fort which they found in temporary command of Lieutenant Brownson. Writing to General Harrison, they reported :


"We beg to add as our opinion that no noise or clamor respect- ing the treaty last summer with the Delawares at this place would have been made had it not been occasioned by the Little Turtle and Wells, the latter of whom seems more attentive to the Indians than the people of the United States."


Wells, viewing the visit of Gibson and Vigo with evident sus- picion, addressed a letter to the former in which he demanded his credentials.


Although Little Turtle declined the invitation to go to Vin- cennes on the ground of his dissatisfaction with the terms of the treaty, and Richardville pleaded a business engagement which would take him in another direction, Wells and Little Turtle visited Governor Harrison at Vincennes in August of the same year. "Both are here," wrote Harrison to Dearborn, "and I have received from each a positive assurance of a friendly disposition as well toward the government as myself individually. With Captain Wells, I have had an explanation, and have agreed to a general amnesty and act of oblivion for the past."


Notwithstanding this seemingly peaceful settlement of the diffi- culty, the official relationship between Wells and the governor failed to improve, and we find Harrison as late as April 23, 1811, writing to Secretary of War Eustis :


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


* ** There should be no principal agent [at Fort Wayne] ; Wells should be sub-agent for the Miamies and Eel River tribes, or, if it is thought improper, give him the title of interpreter, Mr. [John] Shaw, sub-agent for the Putawatimies, and Conner for the Dela- wares. The salary of each to be $550 or $600. * * Wells would gladly accept of such an appointment, and Shaw and Conner have served so faithfully that they deserve some little advance."


A further study of the war records for these years reveals that in 1812, the year of Captain Wells's death, Wells purposed to leave the Indian service and return to his former home in Kentucky. By this time, General Harrison's attitude toward him appears to have undergone a revision, for we find him writing as follows to Secretary of War Eustis :


"Having been informed by Colonel Guiger, Captain Wells's father-in-law, that he [Wells] intended to resign his appointment, and believing that in the present critical state of our Indian affairs the public service would be benefitted by his remaining some time longer at Fort Wayne, * * I wrote to Major Stickney and informed him that he must consider Wells under his immediate * Hated and feared as he is by the surrounding orders. * *




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