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 22

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 22


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The year 1812 was a period of terror throughout the west. Major Stickney, writing May 25th, to Governor Harrison, expressed the general thought in these words:


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THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE


"The time appears to have arrived when it is necessary, if possible, to cut off all communication between the Indians within the territory of the United States, and Canada."


Were such a thing possible earlier in the progress of the anti- American campaign, the declaration of war against Great Britain on June 13 forever forestalled the plan and brought the foes of the United States into still closer alliance. Tecumseh was enabled at once to rally to his aid many who had been reluctant to sever their adherence to the United States.


John Shaw, sub-agent of the Pottawatomies, at Fort Wayne, kept in close touch with the situation, and his letters of March 1 and 10th, 1812, reveal the watchfulness of the garrison at Fort Wayne. Said he :


"It appears from the statements of a gentleman from Detroit that the Morpock (Pottawatomie chief) with a small party of Indians, has been, for a considerable time past, encamped on the river Raisin, and constantly getting provisions from the British at Malden."


On the 10th of March, Robert Forsythe, writing to Captain Rhea, commandant of Fort Wayne, said :


"I have no doubt but those Indians that passed this post [Fort Wayne] some time ago, are a deputation sent to the British garrison for the purpose of procuring ammunition."


Captain Rhea, addressing Captain John Whistler at Detroit, wrote from Fort Wayne, March 14:


"From the best information I can get I [have] every reason to believe we shall have an Indian war this spring whether we have a British war or not."


THE DEATH OF LITTLE TURTLE.


In the midst of these anxious days, came the close of the life of the great Little Turtle. Far from the thoughts of the chief and his friends, as the end drew near, was the truth that in the same year would come, also, the death of Little Turtle's best friend-Captain William Wells.


The Miami chief always had been a lover of the choicest foods. We hear much of his sumptous repasts in which he failed to display the temperate habits which he enjoined upon those who would in- dulge in strong drink. This course proved his undoing, for the condition developed a fatal attack of gout. For his greater con- venience, and in order that he might have the attendance of the surgeon of the fort, the chief was brought from his village on Eel river to the home of his son-in-law, Captain Wells, in the present Spy Run district. Accustomed to life in the open, Little Turtle chose to lie in a shelter arranged within the yard of the home of Captain Wells. During his final days, the chief, while in friendly conversation with his attendants, was informed that gout is a "gen- tleman's disease." With a smile, he replied: "I always thought I was a gentleman." The funeral was characterized by the highest military honors. The service was in charge of Captain Rhea and the garrison of the fort. The chief was buried with all the honors due a leader who had, during eighteen busy years, devoted his life


MAJOR EBENEZER DENNY.


Major Denny was aide-de-camp to General Harmar and also to General St. Clair on their western campaigns (1790 and 1791). While at the site of Fort Wayne he made the first existing map of the Fort Wayne rivers. The portrait is from the printed edition of his Jour- nal. issued by the Pennsylvania Histo- rical Society.


S. CAREY EVANS.


Mr. Evans was among the earlier act- ive business men of Fort Wayne.


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JOHN ELLIOTT HUNT.


John Elliott Hunt, son of Colonel Thomas Hunt, commandant of Fort Wayne, was the first white child born within the stockade of the old fort. This was in 1798. John Elliott Hunt rose to prominence in the later history of Ohio and Michigan.


THE FIRST BRICK BUILDING ERECTED IN FORT WAYNE.


James Barnett, in 1824, erected the first brick building in Fort Wayne, on the north side of Columbia Street, east of Clinton. The brick was made by Benjamin Archer. Used as a resi- dence for many years, the building at the last served as the location of Schwieter's bakery. It was torn down in 1909.


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POSTMASTERS OF FORT WAYNE FROM 1877 TO 1917.


1. Frederick W. Keil. 2. William Kaough. 3. C. R. Higgins. 4. Wright W. Rockhill. 5. William D. Page. 6. Robert B. Hanna 7. Edward C. Miller.


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THE QUIET BEFORE THE SAVAGE STORM


1806 1812


to the uplift of his people, while proving to be a warm friend of the whites. His nephew, Co-is-see,3 pronounced a funeral oration over the remains.


Within the grave of Little Turtle was placed a sword presented to him by General Washington, together with a large silver medal bearing the likeness of Washington.4


THE FORT DEARBORN MASSACRE.


Within a period of two weeks after the death of Little Turtle, General William Hull, governor of Michigan and commandant of a strong American force at Detroit, sent an order to Fort Dearborn, by way of Fort Wayne, instructing the commandant, Captain Nathan Heald, to evacute the fort and transfer the occupants of the lonely post to Fort Wayne. The bearer of the message from Fort Wayne to Fort Dearborn was Win-ne-meg (Winamac) or "Catfish," a friendly Pottawattomie chief whose identity is sometimes confused with that of Winamac, the chief who led in the attack on Fort Wayne later in the same year. Hull sent, also, a message to Fort Wayne, instructing the agent, Major Stickney, to render such assistance as possible to Captain Heald in the removal of the men, women and goods through the wilderness to Fort Wayne. Captain Wells, ever ready when his services were useful in times of peril, and spurred to action by the fact of his close blood relationship with the commandant's wife, organized a company of thirty friendly Indians, and, with Sergeant W. K. Jordan as a companion, set off in haste for Fort Dearborn. Among the Indian members of Wells's escort was Ching-win-thah, nephew of Little Turtle. Wells hoped to reach the fort in time to prevent its evacuation. He arrived too late. Heald had followed to the letter the orders of General Hull, by agreeing to deliver up to the Indians the fort with its contents, excepting such arms, ammunition and provisions as would be neces- sary for the journey to Fort Wayne. The Indians, in turn, promised to allow the passage to Fort Wayne in safety. Preparations for departure were under way when Wells arrived. In addition to the sixty-six enlisted men, the fort contained nine women and eighteen children, a total of ninety-seven, including the officers. The eight days which intervened between the time of the receipt of General Hull's order and the departure from the fort were filled with anxiety because of the sullen, hostile attitude of the savages, who had already murdered the Lee family in their isolated home on the south branch of the Chicago river, near the present Halsted street cross- ing. Wells was downcast. To remain in the fort now meant death from starvation, as all supplies except the little needed for the jour- ney had been destroyed or given to the Indians. The attempt to reach Fort Wayne was the only alternative.


On the morning of the 15th of August, the procession, with Captain Wells in the lead, his face blackened to indicate his belief that death was near at hand, departed from the stockade for the ride toward Fort Wayne, one hundred and fifty miles away. The band chose to play "The Dead March." Every heart was heavy. The children, with some of the women, were placed in covered wagons. The wives of the married officers, Mrs. Heald (Rebekah


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THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE


Wells) and Mrs. Helm (nee Kinzie), wife of Lieutenant Linai T. Helm, accompanied the party on horseback. The wife of John Kinzie, with eleven other persons, including four of her own children, was placed in a boat, with the hope that they might reach a place of safety. The story of the attack of the savages, who rose with the horrible warwhoop from their hiding places in the sand; the death of Captain Wells and many of his companions, and the miraculous escape of the few who lived to tell of the bloody tragedy, is insep- arably linked with the narrative of Fort Wayne.


Wells was the first to realize that the fatal moment had come. He found the savages in large numbers, hidden behind the sand dunes of what is now a thickly settled business and residence portion of the city of Chicago, and immediately he gave the alarm. "They are about to attack us !" he cried. "Form instantly and charge upon them !" To his niece, Mrs. Heald, he gave the encouraging word that her own life would probably be spared, but he added that he was marked for certain death. With the opening of the attack of the savages, Wells entered into the midst of the fight. All of the supposed friendly Indians who had accompanied the party from Fort Wayne deserted the whites. In an effort to protect the women and children, Captain Wells sought to guard the covered wagons. In the midst of the melee, one savage eluded the vigilance of Wells and crept into one of the conveyances, where he scalped and mur- dered its twelve defenseless occupants. Mrs. Heald, beholding her uncle riding rapidly toward her, reached for his hand as he said, "Farewell, my child." He had received a shot through the lungs. Before he breathed his last, he said to his niece: "Tell my wife, if you live to get there-but I think it doubtful if a single one gets there-tell her I died at my post doing the best I could. There are seven red devils over there that I have killed." Wells's horse, pierced by a bullet, fell, pinioning its rider to the earth. In this position he killed one more of the savages, and then came the shot which ended his life. The surrender of the troops, reduced in num- bers through death and capture, soon followed. In all, twenty-six regulars, twelve militiamen, two women and twelve children were killed. The family of John Kinzie, Mrs. Heald, Mrs. Helm and Sergeant Griffith (the latter a brother of the elder Mrs. Alexander Ewing of Fort Wawne) were saved through the good offices of Black Partridge, Sau-gan-ash, and Topenebe.


From his autobiography, we gain this account of the escape of Captain Heald and his wife:


"On the 16th, that is, the day after the action, Mrs. Heald and myself were taken to the St. Joseph river by our new masters. The journey was performed in three days, by coasting the lake, and we remained with them (both being badly wounded and unable to help ourselves) until the 29th of the same month, when we took our departure for Michilimackinac [Mackinac island] in a birch canoe, with Sergeant Griffith, one of the unfortunte prisoners, and three Frenchmen and a squaw. The 14th of September, we arrived safe at Michilimackinac. I was there paroled by Captain Roberts, the British commandant, and permitted to proceed to Detroit with Mrs. Heald and the sergeant."


He adds that the distance from Chicago to Mackinac by the


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route they followed, was two hundred miles, and an additional two hundred miles to Detroit. Many of the captives died of exposure or neglect.


Sergeant W. K. Jordan, who had accompanied Captain Wells from Fort Wayne and who, when the massacre was ended, managed


were once-all allasomed at This produce. My self excepted usa


fornothing smust betobom it can not be done to Soom foo the Jutions are Certainly formung an inpropres cours birra than one that is not Orrend ly towards us other wise the Redan in it would not Koop it so much in The Back From every person that is friendly Dis proved to ward, the wild


CAPTAIN WILLIAM WELLS'S LETTER WHICH FORETOLD THE SAVAGE OUTBREAK.


In 1807, when the Indians were forming their plans for the fierce outbreak which opened in 1811 and extended through several years following the war of 1812, Captain William Wells, Indian agent at Fort Wayne, wrote a letter to Governor William Henry Harrison, at Vincennes, in which he said: "We are all allarmed at this place, myself excepted as I can see no Danger at our Doors. Something must be Done it cannot be done too soon too the Indians are certainly forming an improper combination one that is not friendly towards us otherwise the leaders in it would not keep it so much in the Dark from every person that is friendly disposed to wards the United States." The original letter is in the war department. The reproduction is from a photostatic copy in the Burton Historical Collection, Detroit.


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to steal a horse and escape, has left, in a letter written October 12, 1812, to his wife, "Betsy," in Philadelphia, a thrilling account of the affair. The fight, according to Jordan, lasted about ten minutes. Describing the attack, he says :


"The first shot took the feather out of my cap, the next shot the epaulet off my shoulder, and the third broke the handle of my sword. I had to surrender myself to four damned yellow Indians. They marched up to where Wells lay, and one of them spoke English and said: 'Jordan, I know you; you gave me some tobacco at Fort Wayne-you shan't be killed; but see what I will do with your captain.' Then he cut off his head and stuck it on a pole, while another took out his heart, and divided it among the chiefs, and they ate it raw. They gathered in a ring with us fifteen poor devils in the middle, and had like to fall out who should have the pris- oners."


The ghastly tale of the savages feasting off the heart of Captain Wells was, in reality, the highest tribute that could have been paid the fearless pioneer, for the red man religiously believed that by the performance of this act each man would add to his own nature the courage and bravery which characterized the slain leader. Jor- dan tells of the various Indian families inspecting the prisoners, each family "taking one as long as we lasted, and then started for their towns." Watching his opportunity, Jordan stole a horse and reached Fort Wayne August 26, being seven days in the wilderness.


NOTES ON CHAPTER XVI.


(1) An inventory of merchandise on hand at Fort Wayne, December 30, 1807, as $13.046.84; accounts of Indians, $2,459.29; amount of merchandise re- ceived from January 1, 1808, $15,226.91; expenses since January 1, 1808, $6,- 048.62. The credit side of the report shows merchandise on hand September 30, 1811, $10,281.66; furs, peltries, etc., principally hatters'


furs (beaver), $689.62; cash in hand, $76.3712; ac- counts against Indians, $2,747.56; build- ings, $400. There had been received during these years for furs and pelt- ries, $27,547.07; furs and peltries on the way to market, $3,053.12; goods re- turned to the government, $1,752.34; New York auctioneer paid state duty which was refunded, $195.42; salary transferred, $572.30; showing a profit of $10,502.77, for the period of three years and ten months. (Report of Colonel John Johnston, quoted in Slocum's "Maumee River Basin.")


(2) "History of the Late War [1812] in the Western Country," page 40, by Captain Robert McAfee. The volume from which this and other quotations are made is the property of the writer. The work is very rare and valuable. The book was formerly the property of one George Cardwell, of Harrodsburg, Kentucky, from whom it was purchased in 1859 by General Leslie Coombs, of Lexington, Kentucky, for his friend, the late John W. Dawson, of Fort Wayne. At the time of the death of Mr. Dawson the book became the prop- erty of the late Colonel R. S. Robertson. It remained in the Robertson home un-


til 1915. Captain McAfee, the author, served under Harrison. The book was published in 1816.


(3) Jacob P. Dunn states that Co-is- see was a grandson of Little Turtle. For him the town of Coesse, in Whitley county, is named. See Dunn's "True Indian Stories," page 259.


(4) In September, 1860, Benson J. Lossing, the artist-historian, visited Fort Wayne to obtain material for his work. He says: "When I visited the spot [the present Spy Run district] in 1860, in company with the venerable Mr. Hedges and the Hon. I. D. G. Nel- son, more than twenty apple trees of an orchard planted by Captain Wells-the oldest in Northern Indiana, having been set out in 1804 and 1805-were yet standing, shorn of beauty, huge, gnarled and fantastical, but fruit-bear- ing still. They were on the land of Mr. Edward Smith, on the east side of the road from Fort Wayne to White Pigeon [Spy Run avenue]. In Mr. Smith's garden, which was in the en- closure of the orchard, only a few yards westward of a group of larger trees, was the grave of the Little Tur- tle." Other witnesses have declared that the burial spot was some distance north of the place described by Mr. Lossing. This latter claim is based upon the finding of many Indian relics on lot 26, in Lawton Place, the property of Dr. George W. Gillie. While mak- ing the excavation for the home and for the sewer, workmen unearthed por- tions of the skeletons of thirteen In- dians, showing the place was used as a


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1806 1812


burying ground of the Miamis. In one spot was found a collection of silver crosses and dishes, but the most in- teresting specimen was a sword which, it is believed, was the identical weapon that George Washington gave to Chief Little Turtle on the occasion of his visit to the president. These relics are the property of Jacob M. Stouder.


Hiram Porter, aged ninety years in 1916, said to the writer at that time: "At one time, Jack Hackley, son of Captain James Hackley, wanted to ex-


change his twenty acres of land in the present Spy Run for forty acres be- longing to my father, farther to the northward. I remember he said that if the exchange were made he would have to ask to reserve a small piece of his ground, for there, he said, Chief Little Turtle was buried. I do not know the exact spot, as my father did not make the trade." The father of Hiram Por- ter was John Porter, born in Rock- bridge county, Virginia, in 1805, who came to Fort Wayne in 1833.


CHAPTER XVII-1812


The Siege of Fort Wayne-William Henry Harrison Saves the Garrison.


The massacre of the Fort Dearborn garrison and the surrender of Detroit to the British leave Fort Wayne in a position of peril-General Winchester to the west-Harrison's commission-How Logan, the Shawnee, saved the women and children of Fort Wayne-Me-te-a reveals the savage plot to Antoine Bondie, who tells the story to Major Stickney-Rhea scouts the idea of trickery-The murder of Stephen Johnston-Bondie foils the plans of Chief Winnemac-"I am a man!"-Rhea, the drunken commandant-The siege opens with severity- William Oliver's exploit-Harrison's report to the war department- The relief army moves forward-Flight of the savages-The arrival of Harrison's army at Fort Wayne-The arrest of Rhea-He resigns in disgrace-Destruction of the Indian village-The arrival of General Win- chester-Harrison relinquishes the command and departs for Ohio.


A T LAST, the savages had struck their long deferred blow. The little garrison of less than one hundred men at Fort Wayne received with alarm the first account of the massacre at Fort Dearborn. The news was conveyed by one of the friendly Miamis who found his way, unseen, to the home of Captain Wells and, there, without revealing his identity, he told the tragic story to the family of the brave frontiersman.


The tale spread to the garrison where the deepest concern was felt immediately for the safety of the twenty-five women and children in the fort who, it seemed, were about to share the dangers of an attack by the savages whose intentions were now entirely bared.


Close upon the revelation of the Fort Dearborn horror came the appalling news that the fort at Detroit-the protecting center of the lesser forts of the west-had been ingloriously surrendered to the British by General William Hull without the firing of a single gun. The surrender took place August 16, 1812, and Hull and his troops were sent as prisoners to Montreal. The ultimate result was the degradation of the commander and the bringing of his service to a disgraceful close. The immediate effect was the giving of the strongest of the western American posts into the hands of the British, together with 2,400 stands of arms, twenty-five cannon and a vast quantity of stores, with which to carry the warfare against the Americans, with Fort Wayne as the first objective point of assault. Mackinac soon fell to the British. The news of these disasters struck terror to the hearts of the occupants of Fort Wayne. Tecumseh now turned his attention to the capture of Fort Wayne and Fort Harrison (near Terre Haute), and to the massacre of their occupants.


The secretary of war on the 30th of August sent a message to General James Winchester, who had been given the command of the Army of the Northwest, to the effect that "the immediate object 198


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appears to be the protection of the frontier, for which purpose you will make such a disposition of your force as circumstances may render necessary. Fort Wayne, if possible, should be relieved."


Kentucky, under the direction of General Charles Scott, prompt- ly gathered an army of 5,500 fighting men. Governor Harrison, who had been commissioned to command the troops of Indiana and Illi- nois territories, had accepted an invitation to visit and inspect the Kentucky troops, on which occasion Governor Scott commissioned him major-general of the Kentucky militia. Unknown to all who were concerned in this happy event, President Madison, two days earlier, had commissioned Harrison a brigadier general in the United States army. Soon, the Kentucky troops, under command of Gen- eral Harrison, were moving northward from Cincinnati, with the ultimate object of joining Governor Meigs's forces to wrest Detroit from the British. On the 3d of September, a courier overtook the army and handed to General Harrison his commission from the president, together with instructions to give the troops into the command of General Winchester, who was on his way to receive them. Upon the transfer of the troops, General Harrison was to have assumed command of the Indiana and Illinois volunteers.


During this time, events about Fort Wayne portended the seri- ous situation which soon confronted the little garrison. The peril of the time developed its heroes as well as its cowards and weak- lings. Among those whose names are honored in the story of the times is that of a young Shawnee brave, who because of his capture and adoption in his boyhood by General Benjamin Logan, of Ken-


HEAD QUARTERS, PIQUTA. r September, 5, 1812, 4 o'clock, A. M.)


MOUNTED VOLUNTEERS!


I requested you, in my late address, to rendezvous at Dayton on the 15th inttant. I have now a more preffing call for your Services ! The British and Indians have invaded our country, and are now befeiging (perhaps have taken) Fort Wayne. Every friend to his country, who is able to do fo, will join me as foon as poffible, well inounted, with a good rifle, and twenty or thir- ty days provifion. Ammunition will be furnithed at Cincinnati and at Dayton-and the Volunteers will draw provisions (10 fave their falted meat) at all the public depofiies . the Quarter. Mallers and Commiffuries will fee that this order is executed.


WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON:


HARRISON'S CALL FOR MOUNTED VOLUNTEERS TO SAVE FORT WAYNE. Just one week before his army reached and saved Fort Wayne General Harrison issued the above call for volunteers. ' The original is in the war department. This copy, slightly reduced, is from a photostatic reproduction in the Burton Historical Collection at Detroit.


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tucky, was named "Captain John Logan."1 Already he was known as a true friend of the American cause. Colonel John Johnston, former Indian agent at Fort Wayne, then stationed at Piqua, Ohio, sent Logan as a spy to ascertain the true condition of affairs at Fort Wayne. His brother, Stephen Johnston (who was destined to be the first victim of the siege) was connected with the fort affairs as a clerk in the Indian agency under Major Stickney. At this time, the wife of the younger Johnston was in a delicate physical condition and this added to the concern of the elder Johnston. Logan re- turned to Piqua and reported that the savages about the fort ex- hibited unmistakable signs of hostility, but he expressed his willing- ness to undertake the hazardous task of transferring from Fort Wayne to Piqua, one hundred miles distant, the twenty-five women and children of the fort. These included Ann, Rebekah and Mary Wells, daughters of Captain Wells; and Mrs. Johnston. Mrs. James Peltier (formerly Angeline Chapeteau, who had married in 1806) remained with her husband and four-year-old son, James, Jr., through the siege. During the long journey through the wilderness the vigilant Logan did not close his eyes in sleep, and the record of the experience of the refugees as repeated from the lips of those whom he rescued, tells of his constant tenderness and care. This was but the first of a series of acts of bravery of Logan who was fated to die as a result of a bullet wound from a British rifle while refuting a slander which questioned his loyalty.




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