USA > Indiana > Allen County > Fort Wayne > Valley of the upper Maumee River, with historical account of Allen County and the city of Fort Wayne, Indiana, Volume I > Part 21
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I73
GEOLOGY AND PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.
lake. It is bounded on the southwest and northeast by a well marked beach line known as the Van Wert and Hicksville ridges. The Van Wert ridge upon the eastern border of Indiana is broken up into four which enter Allen county in sections 14, 15, 10, II, 2 and 3, Monroe township. The principal and last formed ridge passes across sections 2, 3 and 4, Monroe, into section 32, Jackson. Then there is a gap of two miles, to pass through which the branches of Flat Rock creek gather from the west, south and southeast. The ridge begins again in section 36, Jefferson, and traverses sections 25, 23, 22, 21 and 16. Here it is double for about half a mile and thence westward lies upon the edge of the St. Mary's moraine, so that in sections 17 and 18, Jefferson, and 12 and II, Adams, its northern face is high and bold. Near New Haven, it ends in a bluff about forty feet high, which is curved back southwards, the cemetery being located upon its apex. The Van Wert road follows the ridge pretty closely. " Irish ridge," in sections 9, 10 and 14, Jefferson, seems to be an off-shore sand-bar, but may have been temporarily the shore line. The Van Wert ridge is a superficial pile of sand and gravel from 10 to 30 feet high and from 5 to 20 rods wide, and presents all the characteristics of a lake beach.
The Hicksville ridge begins in section 4, St. Joseph township, and pursues a very direct course to the northeast corner of the county, be- ing well indicated upon the map by the Hicksville road. It is for the most part more bold and continuous than the Van Wert ridge, chiefly because it coincides with the margin of the St. Joseph moraine. These ridges are prolonged westward to Fort Wayne, upon the sides of the channel through which the Maumee lake emptied into the St. Joseph- Wabash. In sections 14 and 15, Adams, there is a gap a mile and a half wide through which the St. Mary's river once emptied into the lake. It brought down a great quantity of sand which was deposited as a delta at its mouth. The New Haven delta extends from the center of section 5, Jefferson, westward five miles, and has an average width of one mile. Its northern boundary is marked by a conspicuous bluff, which once formed the south shore of the outlet of the lake. The Maumee river traverses the lake region in a very tortuous course, with a sluggish current which flows at the bottom of a channel twenty to forty feet deep. East of New Haven no stream of any size enters it from the south, the drainage being eastward parallel with the Maumee to the Auglaize. Near the northern border of the Maumee lake re- gion " fountain " or artesian wells are numerous. Flowing water is struck at depths of from thirty-five to forty-five feet, a copious stream of which rises to the surface, being fed by reservoirs in the gravel beds of the St. Joseph moraine. The water-bearing gravel often contains rounded fragments of coal never larger than a cherry.
The St. Mary's and St. Joseph moraine is the most extensive and im- portant ridge in the Wabash-Erie region. It extends along the right bank of the St. Mary's river and the left bank of the St. Joseph from Lima, Ohio, to Hudson, Michigan. It has been compared to a dead
I74
VALLEY OF THE UPPER MAUMEE.
wave on the surface of the ocean, hardly perceptible to the eye on ac- count of its smoothness, but revealed by its effect on everything that encounters it. The crest of the ridge can be easily traced upon the map, since it forms the watershed between the St. Mary's and the Auglaize, and between the St. Joseph and the Maumee, being about four miles dis- tant fron the rivers on the west and sometimes thirty miles from those on the east. In Allen county, south of the Maumee, the Wayne trace follows the crest very closely. It is a slightly rolling strip of country four or five miles wide, elevated from fifty to eighty feet above the gen- eral level, and occupying the greater portion of the townships of Madi- son, Marion and Adams, part of Wayne, and the whole space between the Hicksville ridge and the St. Joseph river. A former channel of the St. Mary's cuts through the moraine from the great bend of that river in section 6, Marion township, along the course of Merriam's creek, the Trier ditch and Six-mile creek, to New Haven. It has a nearly uniform width of one-quarter of a mile, and its bottom is from forty to sixty feet below the summit of the moraine.
The St. Mary's basin lies almost entirely on the left bank of that river and consists in Indiana of a flat strip of country ten or twelve miles wide, occupying in Allen county, Pleasant township and portions of Marion, Lafayette and Wayne. The St. Mary's river is a sluggish, muddy stream, almost without bluffs or flood plain, the highest water seldom being more than sufficient to fill its channel. Its minimum flow has been estimated to be from 1,500 to 2,000 cubic feet per minute. In its lower course it has been tossed about from one channel to another repeatedly. The Six-mile creek channel, probably the oldest, has been described. A second channel leaves the present river at the southeast corner of sec- tion 22, Wayne township, and extends southwestward to section 35, about where it joins the Wabash-Erie channel. The Bluffton road crosses it at Chief Godfrey's. It now forms an arm of the prairie six miles long and one-half mile wide. A third and later channel leaves the river one mile below the second, near M. Strack's, and extends west- ward two and one-half miles to the Wabash-Erie channel.
The broad Wabash-Erie channel, above mentioned and previously referred to, deserves careful description. From the western apex of the Maumee lake in section 3, Adams township, to Fort Wayne, it originally gave passage to the waters of that lake westward. It is bounded on the north by a continuation of the Hicksville ridge, which, as it approaches the St. Joseph, curves sharply northward, parallel with that river, to a point two miles above its mouth. The new asylum for the feeble minded is built upon the edge of this bluff. The Wabash-Erie channel passes through the northern half of the city of Fort Wayne. Lines down from the Allen county jail to St. Vincent's orphan asylum, and from the Fort Wayne college to Linde wood cemetery cross the channel at right angles. From Fort Wayne it extends south ward twenty- seven miles, with a breadth varying from one, to one and a half miles. It is bounded on the north by a bluff forty to sixty feet high, and on the
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175
GEOLOGY AND PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.
south by a system of ridges and bluffs hereafter described. This portion of the channel was originally occupied by a stream which carried the united waters of the Maumee lake, the St. Joseph and the St. Mary's, into the Wabash river below Huntington. This stream, which I have called the Wabash-Erie river, was thirty miles long, one mile wide, and may have had a depth of from 60 to 100 feet. For more than twenty miles, the channel is now occupied by a marsh called the Little river prairie, through which meanders an insignificant stream, the successor and heir of a river once comparable with the Detroit or the Niagara.
In the triangular space bounded by the Six-mile creek channel, the second St. Mary's channel and the Wabash-Erie channel are grouped a series of sand and gravel ridges, variously called by geologists kames and osars. They are portions of, or appendages to, the St. Mary's moraine. On the east the system is almost continuous with the Van Wert ridge, being separated from it by the Six-mile creek gap. Kame No. I forms the western border of that gap in section 15, Adams, on the farm of D. Rodenbeck. It is a file of gravel twenty rods wide, twenty feet high and half a mile long. Kame No. 2 lies on the eastern border of the city of Fort Wayne and extends from a point east of the Vordermark homestead westward about one mile to Holton avenue. It has been partially removed for the new freight yards of the P., Ft. W. & C. railway. West of these yards it rises in a conical hill, the summit of which is the highest point of the St. Mary's moraine in Allen county. Kame No. 3, very symmetrical and one-fourth of a mile long, extends parallel with No. 2 about forty rods north of its eastern end. Kame No. 4 begins near the Main street bridge over the St. Mary's, and extends southward one mile to Shawnee run. In the neighborhood of Fort Wayne college it has been graded down thirty or forty feet. The Swinney gravel pit has been extensively excavated out of it. The old Catholic cemetery and Riedmiller's grove are situated upon it. A low spur crosses Broadway near the McCulloch park. Kame No. 5 extends along Walnut street from Fairfield avenue to Shawnee run. Kame No. 6 begins south of the corner of Creighton avenue and Broadway, passes westward through the grounds of Byron Thompson, curves southward along Thompson avenue and ends at " the high banks " of the St. Mary's. Kame No. 7 begins north of the Allen county poor farm and extends southward one mile to the third St. Mary's channel. In front of the infirmary it forms the left bank of the St. Mary's river and is about forty feet high. Kame No. 8 lies west of No. 7 in the north halves of sec- tions 21 and 20, Wayne township. It is very irregular, built along three parallel axes but not complete on either. Two branches extend north- ward from St. John's cemetery into section 16. West of the cemetery it is broken by gaps into a series of conical hills. Its western end at G. Rapp's is broad and slopes gently toward the prairie. It forms the north bank of the third St. Mary's channel. Kame No. 9 begins in a broad, high mass which occupies nearly the whole of the southwest quarter of section 22 on the east of the Bluffton road between Chief
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VALLEY OF THE UPPER MAUMEE.
Godfrey's and M. Strack's. It has been extensively excavated for moulding sand. Thence two branches extend westward, the southern along the south line of section 21 to its west line, the northern through the middle of sections 21 and 20. Kame No. 10 is also double and occupies the north half of section 29. Kame No. II lies a few rods south of the west end of No. 10. Nos. 9, 10 and II are parallel, en echelon, and form the divide between the second and third channels of the St. Mary's.
To this system belong several small islands in the Wabash-Erie channel, now the prairie. The Wabash railway crosses one on the west line of section 20 and another on the line between sections 19 and 30. The latter is known as Midway island. The most interesting and characteristic kame of the series forms Fox island in section 25, Aboit township. It is plainly visibly a few rods to the south of the Wabash railway, but should be visited to be appreciated. A road recently opened across the prairie gives easy access to its western end. Here one beautifully symmetrical ridge, lithe and graceful as a serpent, sweeps in a gentle curve like the Italic letter (S), three fourths of a mile long, 20-25 feet high and as steep as sand can be piled. Several wings and branches upon either side enclose coves and land-locked bays; and covered (as it still is) with luxuriant forests and embraced in mid-channel by the waters of the great river, it must have been one of the most charming and unique parks in the world.
The question of the origin and formation of kames is still an unsettled one. The present state of opinion among geologists inclines to the theory that they were in some way produced by sub-glacial streams or in dry cracks and tunnels under the ice; the materials may have fallen in from the top of the ice sheet, or they may have been squeezed and scraped up from below by the enormous pressure and unequal motion of its mass.
The St. Joseph valley lies between the St. Joseph moraine on the east and the Aboit moraine on the west. It has a nearly uniform width of a little more than half a mile, and is bounded by well marked bluffs often broken into several terraces. Between these the present river winds from side to side with a strong and clear stream, its minimum flow being estimated at 4,000 cubic feet per minute. As in the case of the St. Mary's, the basin of the St. Joseph lies almost wholly upon its western side, being fed from numerous lakes and streamns in Steuben and Noble counties. Careful examination shows it to have been once a much larger stream than at present, to have flowed at a level about thirty-five feet higher and to have discharged its waters through the Wabash-Erie channel into the Wabash.
The Wabash-Aboit moraine is similar in character to the St. Mary's and St. Joseph moraine and parallel with it. It extends along the right. bank of the upper Wabash river to the village of Murray, Wells county, thence into the southwest corner of Allen county, where it turns to the northeast and fills the space between the St. Joseph valley on the
George & Godfrey
I77
GEOLOGY AND PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.
east, and the valleys of the Aboit river and Cedar creek on the west. It occupies the greater part of the townships of Lafayette, Aboit, Wash- ington, Perry and Cedar Creek. The moraine has a breadth varying from four to eight miles and an elevation of from 80 to 120 feet above the St. Joseph river. It is a broad, rolling table land, the chief material of which is a gravelly clay, with frequent mounds, ridges and patches of sand and gravel. Along the line between Lafayette and Aboit town- ships, it is cut in two by the Wabash-Erte channel, on either side of which bluffs rise to a height of from 60 to 125 feet, the hill at Bow- man's, section 8, La Fayette, being 873 feet above tide. In the north- ern part of the county it is cut across again by the gorge of Cedar creek, 50 to 100 feet deep and Soo feet wide. At the bend of Cedar creek, in sections 3, 10 and II, Perry township, the moraine rises to an extraordinary height, where "Dutch Ridge " attains an elevation on the farm of H. Hensinger, of more than 100 feet above the creek and 925 feet above tide, being the highest point in Allen county. This region abounds in precipitous bluffs and deep ravines and deserves the name of the Alps of Allen. Its picturesque beauty is heightened by the pres- ence of a few small lakes, Viberg's and Hollopeter's in section 7, Cedar Creek, being gems of their kind, and typical specimens of morainic lakes.
The Aboit and Eel River region comprises the townships of Lake and Eel River, and portions of Aboit and Perry. The Aboit and Eel rivers have their sources in a marshy prairie which lies in wide, tortuous channels, with various tongues, peninsulas and islands of dry land between. West of Huntertown the prairie is two or three miles wide, and from a bold bluff on the north shore the view across the marsh, diversified with wooded points and islands, is worthy of an artist's pencil. Living and extinct lakes are not rare, the largest being Mud lake, in sec- tion 8, Lake township, and White lake, section 3, Eel River. The north- west half of Eel River township lies upon the borders of the moraine formed between the Saginaw and the Erie ice-lobes, and is quite hilly. The peculiar morainic topography of mound and hollow, although upon a miniature scale, gives sufficient variety and irregularity to render this the most picturesque portion of the county.
Concerning the rocks which underlie the drift in Allen county noth- ing is known except in the isolated spots where deep well borings have been made. These are quite numerous in the vicinity of Fort Wayne. They all pass through the same strata and show that the variations of thickness and level are very slight. The following table embodies all the important geological results:
I2
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VALLEY OF THE UPPER MAUMEE.
Court House Square, Fort Wayne.
Bass Foundry.
Abbott Well.
Section 4, Perry Town- ship.
Surface above tide
772
788
796
844
Drift
88
IIO
100
28 1
Limestone ..
802
2
868
749
Shale (Hudson).
260
5
1,040
176
430
Shale (Utica).
260
287
257
240
Limestone (Trenton).
1,590
21
493
52
Total depth.
3,000
1,458
1,900
1,752
The bed 'rock in the southern half of Allen county is undoubtedly upper Silurian of the Niagara or waterlime group; in the northern part probably Devonian of the corniferous group, but the line of parting can hardly be conjectured. The chapter upon outcrops in Allen county resembles the famous one upon snakes in Ireland. Rumors are afloat of the existence of stone quarries at various localities, but all have proved to be mythical. There are strong indications that rock lies very near the surface in the bed of the Maumee at Bull Rapids; in the bed of the St. Mary's, on the farm of J. J. Essig, section 29, Marion township, and on the farm of J. Akey, section 35, Adams township. Mr. Frank Ran- dall, jr., late of the county surveyor's office, reports a ledge of limestone upon the bank of the Aboit river, in section 20, Aboit township.
The surface of Allen county, together with that of the greater part of Indiana, remains to-day substantially as the mighty stamp of the glacier moulded it. To it we owe our landscape, our soil, our wealth and prosperity. Agriculture and brick manufacture are the only occupations in the county which depend upon the geological structure. Agricultur- ally the land may be divided into three classes: (I) Lacustrine land : lake bottom without muck; soil chiefly fine, tough clay with occasional streaks of sand and gravel; drainage difficult. (2) Bottom or muck land: the largest tracts are inter-moraine in old drainage channels, and basins of extinct lakes; soil black and mucky. (3) Moraine land: high and rolling; soil gravelly clay with mounds and ridges of sand and gravel; drainage easy. Perhaps in no other county of the state has drainage been more important or undertaken upon a larger scale. The Eel river ditch, completed in 1887, is eleven miles long and drains 3,000 acres of marsh. The Little river ditch, completed in 1889, with all its branches has a total length of forty miles, and furnishes an outlet for the water which falls upon 200,000 acres of land. At an expense of $170,000, 35,000 acres of marsh have been converted into rich farming lands, and a fertile source of miasma has been removed, greatly to the improvement of the sanitary condition of 50,000 people. This may be said to be the closing chapter in the history of the Wabash-Erie river. Its channel can never be obliterated, but nothing less than some great con- vulsion of nature can now divert it from the dominion and use of man.
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SETTLEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT.
COMPILED WITH ASSISTANCE OF HON. F. P. RANDALL.
OUND about the old fort, after peace came finally with the end of the struggles of 1812-14, the scene was one of rare beauty. The extensive clearing made by order of Gen. Wayne in 1794, and again by Gen. Harrison in 1812, was covered with waving grass, and circling this stood the primeval forest, like a wall of emerald, pierced by three gates through which flowed the gleaming rivers. The days of Indian warfare had come to an end, the day of white settle- ment was yet in anticipation. Nature smiled restfully, and the few who held this frontier fort spent their days in quiet, perhaps undisturbed by dreams of the whirl and excitement of the city that would rise in this lovely park, with block after block of lofty edifices; for no one then could picture to himself the reality of the flood of immigration that would people these vast solitudes and crowd the busy cities of northern Indiana.
The first business of the vicinity consisted in the portage of goods and furs by way of a well-worn trail seven miles long, from the bend of St. Mary's, one mile west of the fort, to Little river, from the Maumee to the Wabash, and this had previous to about the year 1800, been mainly controlled by the mother of Richardville, who engaged a large number of Frenchmen with ponies, and did a business, according to the representa- tions made at the treaty of Greenville, that amounted to as much sometimes as $100 a day. Then Louis Bourie, of Detroit, established a branch trading house at the fort and carried on the transfer from 1803 to 1809, and his clerk here was an important intermediary in the shipment of goods for the traders from Detroit or Canada up the Maumee to Fort Wayne, and then by packhorses to the Wabash headwaters. This way the transportation would move in the summer and fall, and in the spring great collections of fur of beaver, otter, deer, coon and bear would pass in the other direction coming up from the wilds of Indiana and Illinois.
One notable among the early traders was Hyacinth Lasselle, who was the first white person born at the site of Fort Wayne, and it is believed, the first in northern Indiana. His father, Col. James Lasselle, removed from Montreal to the Indian village, Kekionga, opposite the site of the city, in the fall of 1776, having been appointed agent among
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VALLEY OF THE UPPER MAUMEE.
the Indians for the British government. On February 25, 1777, Hya- cinth Lasselle was born. The family remained at Kekionga until La- Balm's invasion in 1780, when they fled with most of the villagers down the Maumee. In this precipitate movement, the only daughter of the family fell from their boat and was drowned. Returning to Montreal, Hyacinth was put in school. At the age of sixteen he became a clerk with his brothers, James and Francis, traders at Detroit, which he reached after a voyage of two months in batteaux. When peace fol- lowed the establishment of Fort Wayne, Hyacinth was sent by his brothers to trade at that post, and he was in that business here for about eighteen months subsequent to May, 1795. He then descended the Wabash, but was a frequent visitor at the fort until 1804, when he made his home permanently at Vincennes. He served during the war of 1812, acting four years as an officer in the Rangers, and became major- general of militia. He died at Logansport, January 23, 1843. He was a great favorite with the Miamis, who called him Kekiah, or Little Miami, and his remarkable athletic powers made him famous among the Indians. The Miamis, at one time, challenged all the tribes to meet their Kekiah in a foot-race. The Winnebagoes, of Lake Michigan, sent their champion, with a delegation, and as the race neared the close with Lasselle in the lead, the Winnebagoes were so excited that they let fly their arrows at the victor, one of which pierced his thigh just as the race was won. As Lasselle was not seriously hurt, he prevailed on the Miamis to overlook the outrage, but it is not recorded that he was en- gaged in any more international contests. Another noted trader was Antoine Bondie, whose important services before and during the siege have already been described.
Another early birth at Fort Wayne was that of John Elliott Hunt. He was the son of Col. Thomas Hunt, of the First United States in- fantry, who fought at Lexington, Bunker Hill and Stony Point, and was in command at Fort Wayne from 1796 to 1798, having his wife, Eunice, with him. Within the fort, John E. Hunt was born, April II, 1798. His early life was spent with his brother Henry at Detroit. He became known as Gen. Hunt, and in 1816 formed a partnership with Robert A. Forsyth, doing business at Maumee City. He was very energetic in promoting railroad and canal construction, and should be remembered as one of the benefactors of the Maumee valley. He was treasurer of Lucas county and postmaster at Toledo. Col. Hunt, the old commandant, died near St. Louis in 1806.
In May, 1814, when Major Whistler took command of the fort, among the residents are remembered the major's two daughters, William Suttenfield and his wife Laura, Lieut. Curtiss, Baptiste Maloch and wife, and James Peltier and wife. Within the stockade lived a French blacksmith, Louisaneau, who came about the time of the war of 1812, under government appointment. The remains of his shop were discov- ered in making an excavation for the residence of Judge Carson on Berry street, now owned by heirs of Samuel Hanna. Dr. Daniel Smith
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18I
THE VILLAGE AT THE FORT.
arrived in 1814, from Lancaster, Ohio. Dr. Turner came in 1815 and Dr. Trevitt in 1816. During the war of 1812, John P. Hedges was a clerk of John H. Piatt, commissary-general of the northwestern army, and visited Fort Wayne to report on the rations at the fort. At the treaty of Greenville, his father, Samuel P., and he, issued rations to the Indians, and subsequently, in 1814, John P. Hedges became one of the residents of the village at Fort Wayne. At this date George and John E. Hunt resided near the fort with a store of goods; Peter Oliver and Perry Kercheval, a clerk of Major Stickney's. A more extended notice of some of these pioneers and their descendants can here be appro- priately given.
The son of a union between the Maloch and Peltier families, is Louis Peltier, the oldest living resident of Fort Wayne. The history of his parents is romantic and interesting. James Peltier, his father, was one of the early French traders, and a favorite with the Indians. After he had been carrying on this business here six or seven years, Baptiste Maloch, also a trader, and his wife, came to the post in 1807, bringing with them their sprightly grand-daughter, Emeline Chapeteau, who in 1814 became the wife of James Peltier. Miss Chapeteau was a great friend of the savage inhabitants of the region. On landing she was named by the Indians, "Golden Hair." Some time prior to the famous siege of 1812, she accompanied a pleasure party to the home of a French family a short distance down the Maumee. The party was menaced by a crowd of unfriendly Indians as soon as it was out of sight of the fort. Mlle. Chapeteau was at once appealed to by the white party for pro- tection, and she managed to persuade the Indians to allow them to pro- ceed without further molestation. At another time, when she happened to be alone in a cabin without the fort, a party of Indians made a sally upon the latter, and retiring baffled, some of them came to her lonely abode, and entered, but finding her, they made no hostile demonstra- tions, contented themselves with obtaining food and using the floor as a sleeping place. After they left in the morning, an officer ventured out, and finding Mlle. Chapeteau, to his surprise alive, insisted that she should remain within the fort, and she there resided with her uncle, David Bourie, during the subsequent siege. She was a native of Detroit, born in 1792, so that her life was spent, up to a good age, among the stirring scenes of frontier posts. After the death of James Peltier, at about eighty years of age, she married Mr. Griswold, and in February, 1876, she passed away. Three of her children are living. Louis Peltier, the second, was born at the old fort, March 14, 1814. When a boy, he learned the Miami tongue, and traded with that tribe until 1832. He then began the cabinet-maker's trade with James Wilcox, and four years later succeeded to the business, adding to it undertaking in 1840. This business he continued for many years, being engaged twenty-four years at his stand, opposite where is now Root & Co.'s store. This venerable citizen is a man of strict honesty and integrity, has been affectionate in his family, and has the good will and reverence of the community.
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