The year 1822 also brought to Fort Wayne the families of William Nesbit Hood and his brother, Robert Hood, who came from Dayton, Ohio. The Hoods also secured a license for trading with the Indians. Although successful in their operations, they never entered into large scale trading such as the Ewings, and later became involved in politics and real estate speculation.
Most of the traders at Fort Wayne seldom left town, but had a number of men called “engages” in their service who accompanied the Indians in their hunts, supplied them with goods in small quantities, and watched them that they did not sell their furs to traders other than their employers. The furs brought in consisted principally of deer and raccoon skins. Bear, otter, and beaver were becoming scarce. In the eighteen-thirties, when the beaver prices tumbled and the raccoon skins became popular, the Maumee-Wabash region became for a few years the center of interest of the American fur trade, as this area produced large numbers of raccoons.
The skins when brought in were loosely rolled or tied, but they were afterward made into packs which were three feet long and eighteen inches wide after being subjected to a heavy pressure in a wedge press. The values of the furs were nominal, as they were paid for in goods passed off to the Indians for two or three times their actual worth. Moreover, fur prices fluctuated greatly, depending upon the fashion.
On February 24, 1823, John Hays wrote to Calhoun tendering his resignation as Indian agent at Fort Wayne, pointing out that he was too far from his home at Cahokia, Illinois. After elaborating on the benefits the Indians had received under his administration of the agency, he strongly recommended that Benjamin B. Kercheval, his present assistant, be appointed as his successor. Kercheval was an excellent man for the position, but did not receive the appointment, as Hays had allowed the news of his intended resignation to leak out before writing to Calhoun. As the fears of British intrigue around Fort Wayne had vanished after the War of 1812, the agency at Fort Wayne came to be regarded as a political plum. The state delegation in Congress had been exerting pressure on the president for some time to appoint citizens of Indiana to positions in the state. Calhoun, early in 1822, had refused to remove Hays in order that John Tipton, a native of Indiana, could be appointed in his place. However, when the Indiana delegation heard of Hay’s intended resignation, they carried the matter of their recommendation of Tipton directly to President Monroe and secured his approval before Calhoun had the opportunity to recommend Kercheval. When Kercheval brought the news of his failure to Hays, the latter wrote to Lewis Cass, “I never was more disappointed and mortified than on the arrival of Mr. Kercheval. I certainly should not have resigned at this moment, had I not thought Mr. Kercheval would be successfull.”[22]
Hays remained at Fort Wayne until June 5, 1823, and for a short time both he and Tipton were present at the agency. John Tipton was a product of the east Tennessee frontier, where he was born in 1786. When he was seven, his father was killed by an Indian. In 1807, the Tipton family moved to Harrison County, Indiana. Although he lacked any formal education, Tipton’s dynamic qualities as a leader more than compensated for his educational shortcomings. In later life, Tipton learned to read and write, but it always remained a difficult task for him, judging by his letters. In 1811, Tipton took part as a common soldier in the battle of Tippecanoe. Afterward his advancement in the army was astonishingly rapid, for in six years, he became a brigadier general. After the War of 1812, Tipton’s rise in the political field was equally as rapid and his influence became statewide. The political positions he held were as follows: justice of the peace, deputy sheriff, sheriff, member of the state legislature, state commissioner, Indian agent at Fort Wayne, and finally U. S. Senator.
In 1823, Tipton was glad to accept the position as Indian agent at Fort Wayne for life at Corydon, his former home, had become unpleasantly complicated by financial and domestic difficulties. His marriage to Martha Shields had ended with a divorce in 1817. The salary of the Indian agent was $1,200 a year, a fair income in those days. The position also gave Tipton special advantages in the treaty negotiations to secure choice sites of land either for his friends or for himself. It was primarily through this means that Tipton was well on his way to becoming one of the wealthiest men in the state at the time of his death. Obviously Tipton’s financial and political success were closely linked. In today’s society the public and private “conflict of interest” in his career would be grist for many crusading journalists. However in an age when the “Spoils System” would soon become acceptable and in a small isolated frontier community where the agent had to deal constantly with the same few individuals, his career should also be judged in relation to the time and place. Tipton was not insensible to the needs of the Indians under his care, but he usually decided on the issues with his personal and political future in mind.
When Tipton received his appointment there were only 2,441 Miami, Potawatomie and Eel River Indians left in the territory covered by the Fort Wayne agency. In 1824, their annuities amounted to $17,300 for the Miamis, $1,100 for the Eel River Indians, and $1,700 for the Potawatomies. These annuities, which increased threefold during Tipton’s administration, were a stake well worth effort of the traders. Moreover, added to these annuities were the gifts and other contingencies which the government furnished the Indians and had to buy from the traders. The traders in the vicinity of Fort Wayne realized the fur trade was declining, but they also knew the Indians sill needed their goods and encouraged then to buy heavily on credit. The Indians recognized these debts, some of which were artificial even, and before the annuities were paid, the traders made sure they received their payments. What was left for the Indians was either spent on whiskey or in buying more goods. There was no limit to the greed of many of the traders. Finding the annuities inadequate, they joined with the Indians in asking for increased payments by the government and conspired to hold up treaty agreements until demands were granted.
The outstanding incident of Tipton’s second year as agent was his seizure of goods belonging to the powerful American Fur Company for violation of the Intercourse Act on the part of two of their clerks at Fort Wayne. Tipton’s action was upheld by a jury in the United States district court, and the goods were declared forfeited. However, when the case was carried to the United States Supreme Court, the judgement was reversed, and the case was ordered back to the district court, where it was finally dismissed.[23] Whatever the legal merits of the case, it was clear that not even someone with Tipton’s political influence could challenge the important traders, especially Astor’s American Fur Company.
[1]John Tipton Papers I, IHC, XXIV ed. Nellie Robertson and Dorothy Riker, p. 49.
[2]Major Vose was a native of Manchester, New Hampshire. He was commissioned a captain in the twenty-first infantry in 1812 and promoted to major during the war. In 1842, he received the commission of colonel. His death occurred at New Orleans Barracks, in Louisiana, in 1845.