Major Jenkinson’s period of service at Fort Wayne was brief. His family did not accompany him to the post, and after six months he chose to return to Kentucky where he was appointed adjutant of the state militia. The only existent letter of Major Jenkinson while he was stationed at Fort Wayne, throws some light on the attitude of the local French people toward slavery. The major, writing to his wife, complained that some of the French men living near Fort Wayne had thoroughly “corrupted Ephraim [the major’s slave] by their ideas”; so much so that it was necessary “to cool the fellow off, by two very hard whippings.”[34]
In May, 1814, the command of Fort Wayne was given to Major John Whistler of the First United States Infantry. Major Whistler was not a stranger to Fort Wayne. As a lieutenant he had accompanied Wayne on his western campaign, and was here to assist in the building of the original fort. He remained as a special officer to oversee the maintenance of the forts of the surrounding region. Later, his wife joined him at Fort Wayne, and it was here that their son, George Washington Whistler was born in 1800.[35] Following Major John Whistler’s early service at Fort Wayne, he was transferred to Detroit, and from thence to Chicago, where he built Fort Dearborn and became its first commandant.
Major Whistler was chronically in debt. In fact, his financial outlook was almost hopeless. With a salary, as a captain, of $40.00 a month, he had a family of fifteen children to maintain. To make matters worse, the visits of the government paymaster were highly irregular. On one occasion, he wrote to a creditor that he had received no pay in a period of more than two years. “I hope you will not think I complain against my government for detaining my pay,” he added, “No, but necessity forces me to make the real statement to satisfy my creditor.”[36] It is distinctly to Major Whistler’s credit that even in the act of pressing for payment his creditors frequently paused to express confidence in his honesty and sympathy for his lot.
The year 1814, which marked the return of the Whistler family also marks the re-establishment of family life in and about Fort Wayne. While the Maloch and Peltier families remained at Fort Wayne throughout the war, the other Fort Wayne families had taken refuge mainly in the more settled areas along the Ohio river. Some of the families never did return, but among those who did was the Louis Bourie family. Bourie as early as 1786 maintained a profitable enterprise at the portage by keeping pack-horses and a warehouse for the deposit and transportation of merchandise and peltries. During the war, he moved to Detroit with his wife and two children. Soon after his return to Fort Wayne in 1814, Bourie was given a contract to provide bread for the soldiers, and in 1815, he built a bakery at the corner of the present Clinton and Columbia streets. A short time later he established a general store and erected a log residence adjoining the building.
George Hunt, who had served as a sutler prior to the war, also returned to Fort Wayne in 1814. He was the son of Colonel Thomas Hunt, the third commander at Fort Wayne. With George Hunt came his younger brother, John Elliott Hunt.
Lt. Daniel Curtis, to whom we are indebted for the best account of the siege, was still connected with the post in 1814. Other residents of the fort in that year included Benjamin Stickney, who remained as Indian agent; Benjamin Berry Kercheval and Peter Oliver, clerks of the agent; Charles Peltier a fur trader; John P. Hedges, who had first visited the fort in 1812 and who was now stationed at the fort as a storekeeper; Dr. Daniel Smith, the post surgeon; Robert Forsythe, who later became a paymaster in the United States army; and a French blacksmith, Louisaneau, who had a government appointment to do work for the troops as well as the Indians about the fort.
One of the new arrivals at Fort Wayne at this time was William Suttenfield. Suttenfield had first visited Fort Wayne in 1811, at which time he was in Colonel John Johnston’s employ, being in charge of a pack train hauling military and Indian stores from Piqua, Ohio, to the fort. In 1814, he brought his wife, formerly Laura Taylor, and his infant son, William F. Suttenfield, to Fort Wayne by way of the St. Mary’s river, the route used most frequently by travelers from southwestern Ohio. Suttenfield was for many months after his arrival employed in bringing provisions to the fort from Piqua and other points. He was short, slender, and very active and agile. For these reasons he boasted that the Indians could not catch him while he was bringing in supplies. Soon after their arrival, the Suttenfields built a log house outside the fort. This was the first home erected beyond the protecting walls of the fort, following the siege. It stood near the river to the south of the fort.
Mrs. Laura Suttenfield lived until 1886. Before her death, she left an impressive description of a 4th of July celebration in 1814. The isolation and quietude of Fort Wayne in that year is suggested by her account:
The fort at that time contained sixty men of the regular army, all patriotic and anxious to celebrate one day in the year. They made three green bowers, 100 feet from the pickets of the fort ... one bower for the dinner table, one for the cooks and one for the music. Major Whistler had two German cooks and they prepared the dinner.... Our dinner consisted of one fine turkey, a side of venison, boiled ham, vegetables in abundance, cranberries and green currents. As for dessert, we had none. Eggs were not known here for three years from that time. There were but three bottles of wine sent here from Cincinnati; but one was made use of. Then there were a few toasts, and, after three guns and music, they went into the fort and the ladies changed their dresses. Then Major Whistler called for the music, which consisted of one bass drum, two small ones, one fife, violin and flute. There was a long gallery in the fort; the musicians took their seats there.... A french four passed off very well for an hour. Then the gates of the fort were closed at sundown, which gave it a gloomy appearance. No children, no younger persons for amusement, all retired to their rooms. All was quiet and still. The sentinel on his lonely round would give us the hour of the night. In the morning we were aroused by the beating of the reveille.[37]
The lives of these residents of Fort Wayne in 1814 were never without some fear of possible attack from the Indians, even though the danger had diminished. That Major Whistler expected just such an attack is evident by his letter of July 1 to Brigadier General Duncan McArthur, in which he asked for additional men or permission to reconstruct the fort. Said he “The Indians show a bad disposition to attend the Treaty [This treaty was held at Greenville]. I have Received an Account from Mr. Johnston that the Potawatomies and Taways and the Other Indians Bordering on Lake Michigan are intending to join the British and take Detroit, Malden and this Place this Moon.”[38]