The Baptist missionary, of whom Teas speaks, was the Reverend Isaac McCoy who came with his wife and seven children to Fort Wayne on May 15, 1820, and stayed for over two years at the fort. McCoy wished to go farther into the Indian country, but as he states, “necessity not choice compelled us to consent to go to Fort Wayne.”[12] Despite the predilection of some of the Indians for the Catholic faith as a result of long contacts with French traders and past remembrances of the French Jesuits, McCoy collected a fairly large number of Indian children for his school at Fort Wayne.[13] The authorities at Fort Wayne afforded McCoy every encouragement, although the Indian agent, John Hays, later regretted the fact that he allowed McCoy to use the barracks for housing the children. The forty half-civilized children racing around his offices, nearly drove the agent to distraction, besides destroying a great deal of government property.
Of the five instructors engaged from time to time to aid in teaching the Indians, none remained over a period of three months. The McCoys found the necessities of life very dear at Fort Wayne; flour was obtainable only by long transportation and corn was also scarce. In the year 1821, the mission was saved from closing by receipt from the United States Government of four hundred and fifty dollars. This money was taken from a fund of ten thousand dollars appropriated by Congress for civilizing the Indians. Because of the steady demoralization of the Indians around Fort Wayne brought about by the traders’ whiskey, McCoy decided to move his mission in 1822. A new mission was established one hundred miles northwest of Fort Wayne on the St. Joseph of Lake Michigan River.
A change in the management of the Indian agency at Fort Wayne took place in 1819 when Benjamin F. Stickney was transferred to a post on the lower Maumee and Dr. William Turner was named to succeed him. Stickney had served for nine years, and during this time, like all agents, had made many enemies. General Duncan McArthur writing from Chillicothe, Ohio, as early as March, 1815, informed Secretary of War James Monroe, that Colonel Lewis, a Shawnee chief had placed before him severe criticisms of Stickney’s methods. “The Indians are generally displeased with Mr. Stickney as an agent,” added General McArthur, “and several of them have requested me to make it known to the president and solicit his removal. He is certainly not well qualified to discharge the duties of an Indian agent.”[14]
As a federal Indian agent, Stickney was responsible for the fate of numerous whites and Indians. Among his duties at that time were the licensing of traders and the settlement of their claims and disputes with the tribes, enforcement of the intercourse regulations, disbursement of annuities and gifts, and expenditure of funds for improvements, and the punishment of unruly Indians. Tactful handling of these problems and of numerous squabbles between the two races was an invaluable factor in preventing bloodshed and preserving good relations. Stickney was inclined to be too arrogant in dealing with the Indians, and at times seemed to lack any humanitarian feeling toward those under his care.
On April 20, 1818, Congress passed an act which consolidated the agencies of Fort Wayne and Piqua, and John Johnston was appointed agent for the agency thus formed. In effect this left Stickney out of the service, but as it was impossible for Johnston to take care of the Fort Wayne agency as well as that of Piqua, Stickney remained at Fort Wayne as sub-agent.
Stickney continued to serve under this arrangement through the year 1818, though there appears to have developed a degree of friction between the sub-agent and his superiors. Governor Lewis Cass of Michigan, writing in January, 1819, to John Calhoun, Secretary of War, said, “... circumstances have occurred at Fort Wayne which have had a tendency to injure the usefulness of Mr. Stickney there.”[15] What these circumstances were we do not know, other than a supposition that Stickney might have made many powerful enemies among the traders at Fort Wayne. This was quite likely due to the nature of the Indian trade and the power of the agent. Lewis Cass was not one to disregard the complaints of the traders, as he usually supported the large trading companies, in particular Astor’s American Fur Company. As a perennial political appointee, Cass found it worthwhile to have friends among these influential traders, and as Stickney’s superior in the Indian Department, Cass was in all likelihood inclined to support the traders in any quarrel that might have developed. In commenting on the charges brought against himself by some of the traders at Fort Wayne in 1824, John Tipton, another agent, wrote to John Calhoun, “You will no doubt recollect that Mr. Stickney while Agt here was harassed with charges and all kinds of persecution.”[16]
Under these circumstances, which we can only surmise, Benjamin Stickney left the agency in 1820 and moved to Toledo, where he later gained prominence as a leader in the fight to keep that section of the country under the government of the state of Ohio rather than the state of Michigan.
Dr. William Turner, Stickney’s successor, had been stationed at Fort Wayne between 1810-12 as garrison surgeon’s mate. On April 7, 1813, he was promoted to surgeon in the Seventeenth Infantry. He resigned from the army on January 31, 1815, returned to Fort Wayne as a private citizen, and married Anne Wells, daughter to Captain William Wells. On March 6, 1819, he was appointed agent for the Miami, Eel River, and other Indians, and in 1820, assumed all of Stickney’s duties. Because of ill health, Turner began to drink considerably, and within a year, on May 24, 1820, Calhoun informed him of his removal from office in consequence of “unsatisfactory conduct.”[17] However, the affairs of the agency were not turned over to his successor, John Hays, until August, 1820. Turner died at Fort Wayne in 1821.
At a time when the story of Indian relations was a sordid and corrupt one, revealing on the part of traders, agents, and officials of the Indian administration a baseness and moral depravity that was unusual even for the nineteenth century, John Hays stands out as one of the few agents who could not be classed in such a group. Hays was born in New York City in 1770. While a youth, he engaged in the Indian trade as a clerk in a trading house in Canada. In 1793 he settled at Cahokia, Illinois, where he held a number of government positions until his appointment at Fort Wayne. Unfortunately for the Indians of this area, Hays remained at Fort Wayne less than three years.
John Hays was never happy at Fort Wayne, despite his good work. He could not bring his family here, as they were too numerous to move a great distance, and the five hundred miles to Cahokia was also too far for Hays to visit them. Furthermore, Hays became disgusted when he found that by his own efforts, he was helpless in checking the traders from furnishing the Indians whiskey. On one occasion the traders combined against him to prevent the issuance of a presidential order curtailing the amount of whiskey brought to Fort Wayne.