Outpost in the Wilderness: Fort Wayne, 1706-1828

by Charles R. Poinsatte

Whether or not General Wilkinson achieved his purpose of bettering conditions at Fort Wayne and Detroit by these transfers is not known. At any rate Colonel Hamtramck did not remain long at Fort Wayne. In less than a year he was ordered back to Detroit and there he remained in command until his death in 1803. In April, 1798, a month before his final departure from Fort Wayne, his son, John Francis, was born. As far as it is known, this child was the first white person born within the stockade.

On May 16, 1798, Colonel Thomas Hunt arrived at Fort Wayne to take command. Colonel Hunt had served with distinction in the Revolution. Born in Massachusetts, he became a member of Captain’s Croft’s Company of “minute men” at Lexington and Concord, in April, 1776. Later he fought in the battles of Bunker Hill and Stoney Point. In 1793, he returned to military service as a major with Wayne. Following the western campaign and the building of Fort Wayne, he went to Detroit and assisted Wayne in the formal transfer of the British post to the Americans. He served then as commandant of Fort Defiance.[33] Following the western campaign of Wayne, he had been given command of Fort Defiance. With Colonel Hunt came his family to Fort Wayne directly from their home in Boston.

While at Fort Wayne, Colonel Hunt often drew criticism for his independent action. Nevertheless, it is apparent that he devoted his energies to the betterment of conditions at Fort Wayne, for he undertook the responsible task of building a new fort to take the place of Wayne’s hastily constructed post which by 1800 was beginning to decay. The new fort was located about three hundred feet north of the old structure and enclosed the area of the present Old Fort Park in the city of Fort Wayne. It seems very probable that the troops occupied the original fort during the period of construction of the second fort, so there were two American forts standing at the same time, separated by perhaps three hundred feet of space. The new fort was reported to be “large and substantial ... commanding a beautiful view of the river, as also an extent of about four square miles of cleared land.”[34] Six log barracks for the officers and men, a brick magazine, and smaller buildings were grouped within the palisades around the parade ground.

Captain Thomas Pasteur, an officer in the Revolution and a member of Wayne’s corps succeeded Colonel Hunt as commander in June, 1802. Pasteur remained but a year at Fort Wayne during which time there was little activity at the outpost. There is some indication from two letters written at the time that Colonel Henry Burbeck was in command at Fort Wayne in the spring of 1803, although the Fort Wayne Orderly Books give no record of this.[35] If he did serve at Fort Wayne, his stay was no longer than that of his successor, Major Zebulon Pike, who remained less than two months. Major Pike was the father of the noted explorer of the southwest, Zebulon M. Pike. The Major who was in poor health was given command of Fort Wayne in the hope that the position would be an easy one, as well as furnish an increase in his pay. The command did not meet Pike’s expectations, since his nature was such that the constant drunkenness of the men under him was more than he could stand. His rigid attitude in regard to temperance was revealed in a letter to Colonel Kingsbury while both were serving at Detroit. In it he declines an invitation of the Colonel to attend an officers’ party at which he believes some alcoholic drink would be served.[36]

Major Pike’s successor, Captain John Whipple, arrived at Fort Wayne in September, 1803. A group of Quakers visiting Fort Wayne in 1804 reported that Captain Whipple, “behaved with a freedom and gentility becoming a well breed [sic] man.”[37] That he was a man of fair intellectual talents is shown by the nature of the entries in the Fort Wayne Orderly Books during his administration. In 1804, Captain Whipple journeyed to Detroit to bring back his wife, the former Archange Pelletier, a descendant of the oldest family of Detroit, Francois Pelletier having preceded Cadillac to that spot by two years.

After serving almost four years at Fort Wayne, Captain Whipple resigned on January 31, 1807 and in his stead Captain Nathan Heald was appointed as commander. Captain Heald remained at Fort Wayne until May 16, 1810, on which day he left to take command at Fort Dearborn (Chicago), being in charge of that garrison on the day of the fateful massacre, August 15, 1812. During his stay at Fort Wayne, Captain Heald met the niece of William Wells, Rebeckah Wells, whom he later married. Captain Heald was replaced at Fort Wayne by Captain James Rhea, an unfortunate choice for the troublesome days that were to come during the crucial first year of the War of 1812.[38]

From the beginning of Colonel Hunt’s administration in 1798 to the end of Captain Heald’s in 1810, the frontier was comparatively peaceful, especially until 1807. In that year signs of the forthcoming Indian difficulties began to appear, although the actual conflict did not break out until 1811, with the battle of Tippecanoe. In August 1796, Winthrop Sargent, the Secretary of the Northwest Territory, proclaimed the organization of Wayne county, with Fort Wayne on its southern boundary. 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 was elected to represent the Northwest Territory in Congress. This body, on the seventh 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 opposite the mouth of the Kentucky river and running northward to the straits of Mackinac. Five days later William Henry Harrison was appointed governor of the newly created territory. Vincennes in the southern part of the territory, situated on the Wabash river, became the capital.

Up north, Fort Wayne, already an important post in the defense of the Northwest Territory, also became a government outpost of diplomacy and trade with the Indians. By 1798, the United States government had established an Indian agency at Fort Wayne. The Office of Indian Affairs was a division of the War Department from 1789 to 1849, and was under the direction of the Secretary of War. The Indian agents were the representatives of the department among the various tribes. This plan, to have official representatives of the government stationed permanently among the Indians, was adopted from that used by the English during colonial times. Captain William Wells was the logical choice to be the first Indian agent at Fort Wayne. The military and government officials both felt that he was deserving of some reward for his outstanding services during and after Wayne’s campaign in 1794-95. Above all he was admirably suited for the position, being intimately acquainted with the Indians of this region and being able to speak fluently five of the Indian dialects. When Volney asked the inhabitants of Vincennes for aid in compiling a dictionary of the Indian language, they recommended that he consult William Wells, as Wells knew the Indian languages better than any other man in the territory.[39]

Undoubtedly, Wells was anxious to secure the position for it paid a handsome salary of $1,200 a year plus some expenses, which was rather good in those days for a government employee. Moreover, the position gave the agent the opportunity of arranging profitable private contracts for services and goods for the Indians. With the purpose of obtaining the appointment, Wells secured a letter of introduction from his friend, Colonel Hamtramck, to the Secretary of War.[40] In all probability Wells used this letter and other recommendations to good advantage when he accompanied Little Turtle to Philadelphia in the winter of 1797. Upon his return from Philadelphia, Wells wrote to Hamtramck that he “was encouraged and hopeful.”[41] His hopes were well founded for in the summer of 1798, Wells received the appointment as Indian agent at Fort Wayne.

Four years later, Fort Wayne was selected as the location for one of the Indian “factories” then being established by the national government. It is somewhat difficult to make a distinction between the Indian agency and Indian factory. Strictly speaking, the factory was the place where goods were received, stored, and distributed, where trading was carried on with the Indians by the government and payments of goods and annuities made. The factor (the government representative in charge of the factory), therefore, dealt primarily in financial and commercial matters. On the other hand, an Indian agent was concerned with political matters, such as the negotiations and treaties for the cession of lands belonging to the Indians. It was his duty to see that the tribes remained friendly to the United States and to report any grievances and discontent. The distinction between the respective positions, however, was one more in theory than in fact. That the agent’s and factor’s duties would overlap is fairly obvious, even if they would have been clearly defined and adhered to. Any political negotiation of the government with the Indians called for payment in money and goods to the Indians, often for a number of years, as well as at the time of the treaty. One of the main causes of Indian dissatisfaction which the agent had to meet was that caused by the poor quality of goods sometime furnished at the Indian factories.