Prepared by the Staff of the
Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County
1954
One of a historical series, this pamphlet is published under the direction of the governing Boards of the Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County.
BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE SCHOOL CITY OF FORT WAYNE
PUBLIC LIBRARY BOARD FOR ALLEN COUNTY
The members of this Board include the members of the Board of Trustees of the School City of Fort Wayne (with the same officers) together with the following citizens chosen from Allen County outside the corporate City of Fort Wayne:
General Josiah Harmar’s ill-fated campaign in 1790 was the first of three historic expeditions against the Indians in the Old Northwest. The defeat of General Arthur St. Clair followed in 1791, and the victory of General Anthony Wayne in 1794.
The first article in this pamphlet identifies the exact sites of the Indian villages around the three rivers. The destruction of these villages was one of the objectives of Harmar’s campaign. The journal of one of Harmar’s soldiers and admirers provides a firsthand account of this expedition and is printed as the second article. The third article is a speech delivered by James McGrew at a meeting of the Maumee Valley Monumental and Historical Association on August 15, 1888.
The Boards and the Staff of the Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County present this publication in the hope that it will increase interest in local history. Grammar, spelling, and punctuation have been changed to conform to current usage.
On October 15, 1790, Colonel Hardin and a detachment of six hundred of General Harmar’s men reached the Indian towns at the forks of the Maumee River. The destruction of these towns was the object of General Harmar’s expedition. When Colonel Hardin’s command arrived at the towns, they found them abandoned by the Indians. The principal one, called Omee Town, had been burned. On the seventeenth, General Harmar and the remainder of the army joined Colonel Hardin.
Most readers know that there were a number of Indian villages at and near the junction of the St. Mary’s and St. Joseph rivers, but few persons know the exact location of these towns. To add to the general information which we have heretofore given on Fort Wayne’s early history, we present the testimony of a writer who wrote a supplement to the official account sent to the War Department. That writer included some details which could not go into the official report. The supplement was written in 1791 and was published in the PHILADELPHIA DAILY GENERAL ADVERTIZER of that year; hence, it may be considered accurate. It was read in 1840 by the late John W. Vancleve of Dayton, Ohio, who knew much of the report to be true. With reference to the towns at the forks of the Maumee, we quote as follows:
“There were at that time seven towns on the three rivers in the vicinity of the confluence of the St. Joseph and St. Mary’s rivers. The principal Miami village was called Omee Town, and among its inhabitants were a considerable number of French traders. Omee Town stood upon the east bank of the St. Joseph, or north side of the Maumee, directly opposite the mouth of the St. Mary’s; it had been burned before Colonel Hardin’s arrival. Another Miami village of thirty houses stood on the bank opposite Omee Town. The Delawares had three villages. Two were on the St. Mary’s about three miles from its mouth, with forty-five houses in all; the other village was on the east bank of the St. Joseph two or three miles from its mouth, with 2 thirty-six houses. The Shawnee had two villages about three miles down the Maumee. Chillicothe was on the north bank with fifty-eight houses, and the other village of sixteen houses was on the opposite side of the river. The army burned all the houses in the different villages and destroyed about twenty thousand bushels of corn which had been hidden by the Indians. Considerable property belonging to the French traders was also destroyed.”
The above quotation contains the best information that we have found concerning the Indian towns at this place. It locates the exact sites of the Miami towns. The large village was built on the bottom land at the junction of the Maumee and St. Joseph rivers, and the smaller one was on the tract afterward called the Wells Pre-emption between Spy Run and the St. Joseph River. It also ascertains that Chillicothe was a Shawnee town three miles down the Maumee River. The spot is identified on which General Harmar dated his orders on October 20, 1790, before starting his return march to Fort Washington. The Piqua towns mentioned in some accounts must have been the two Delaware towns located on the St. Mary’s River which was once called the Pickaway Fork of the Maumee River.
In 1790 there were five hundred acres of cleared land at and around the junction of the three rivers. Four years later, on the seventeenth of September, 1794, General Wayne’s army reached the Maumee villages. The next day that distinguished commander designated the spot on which to build a fort. On October 22, the work was finished; and Colonel Hamtramck, after fifteen rounds of cannon were fired, called it Fort Wayne.
DAWSON’S FORT WAYNE DAILY TIMES, October 15, 1860
Colonel Joseph McMaken has obligingly furnished us for publication the following interesting sketch of General Harmar’s campaign. The writer, Colonel David H. Morris, Miami County, Ohio, was a sergeant in the expedition and kept a journal of the most interesting occurrences. Colonel Morris still has his journal and, at the request of Colonel McMaken, transcribed this sketch. It may therefore be relied on as correct; it is, indeed, corroborated by the statements of the late Chief Richardville and other old residents of Fort Wayne.
“Fort Washington was the rendezvous. Colonel Hardin, with a regiment of mounted riflemen, and James Fontaine, with a troop of cavalrymen from Kentucky and militiamen from Pennsylvania, joined Harmar here. On September 29, 1790, we began our march and proceeded four miles toward the Maumee villages near where Fort Wayne now stands. On the thirtieth of September we moved forward on the Indian trail leading to the old Chillicothe town on the Little Miami River. When we arrived there after several days’ marching, we fired our guns and reloaded them.
“In the evening we encamped about one mile above James Galloway’s residence. The next day we crossed Mad River and encamped a little below the site of New Carlisle. Here we killed twenty cows that had been condemned because of injuries received from the stronger cattle. The next day we crossed Indian Creek, which I named in honor of an old Shawnee chief; the same day we crossed Lost Creek in Miami County. In the evening we encamped two miles north of Staunton. On the following day we crossed the Miami River, just above where Piqua is now located. Indians who had crossed the river just before us had left their canoe. They had killed a cub bear, cut the skin into small pieces, and placed it on stumps. From this circumstance, we were sure that we had been discovered. That evening we encamped near Upper Piqua and the next day moved toward the St. Mary’s River. About midday seven Indians were discovered and pursued by the scouting party. One of them was taken; 4 he proved to be a half-breed about twenty years old, and a sullen dog he was!
“We crossed Loramie Creek next morning, where Clark or Logan had burned a village some ten years before. After crossing the divide to the St. Mary’s River, we encamped. A council of war decided that Colonel Hardin with a detachment from the army should proceed by forced marches to the Maumee villages, intercept the Indians in their flight, and, if possible, capture their goods and furs. In this they were disappointed; all the buildings were on fire when the detachment arrived. Directly after Colonel Hardin took possession of the town, two Indians were fired upon as they rode into the plain west of the St. Joseph River. The next day their horses were found, and it was supposed from the quantity of blood discovered that both Indians had been killed. General Harmar arrived two days after Colonel Hardin had taken possession of the place. The next day two Indians were discovered, and one of them was shot down but not killed. When a young Kentuckian attempted to end the Indian’s misery, his pistol failed to fire; the Indian raised his rifle and fatally shot the white man through the body. We remained in this encampment for several days; a great deal of corn, beans, and other supplies were destroyed.
“On the evening of October 16, Captain McClure killed a Delaware chief called Captain Pauk. On the seventeenth we remained stationary; this day six brass kettles containing $32.00 were found buried in the hazel thicket. On the eighteenth Colonel Hardin was sent up the St. Joseph River to burn two towns; one was twelve and the other was eighteen miles from our camp. At the same time General Harmar marched down the Maumee River to Chillicothe and encamped.
“Colonel Hardin destroyed the Indian towns and on his return was attacked about ten miles from Fort Wayne, near the late Captain Hull’s farm at Eel River. When the Indians fired upon them, the Kentucky mounted riflemen wheeled their horses and made for the camp. The Pennsylvania militia and the regular soldiers were left a prey to savage barbarity; one officer and four private soldiers never returned to the camp. The nineteenth was spent in camp. Cannon were fired throughout the day in hopes that some of the men had escaped the massacre and could find the camp from the sound; none came.
TWO INDIANS WERE FIRED UPON
“On the twentieth we started home and encamped that night six or seven miles from the Maumee villages. About midnight David Williams, a spy and our principal guide, who had been a prisoner among the Indians for many years and who had been left behind to observe their movements, came into camp. He reported that about 120 Indians had collected in the bend opposite the site of Fort Wayne. On hearing this news, a council resolved to send a detachment back to disperse them. This force was put under the command of Colonel Hardin, Major Willis, Captains Ashton and Frothingham of the regulars, Major Fontaine and Captain Gains of the Kentucky horse company, and Captains McMullen and Saunders of the Kentucky mounted riflemen. I have forgotten the names of the other officers.
“The troops were put in motion as quickly as possible. By sunrise they arrived at the ford of the Maumee River. As soon as our men entered the river, the Indians opened a brisk fire upon them. Major Fontaine succeeded in gaining the bank and discovered the main body of Indians concealed in ambush. He gave orders to halt until the main body of his men got across the river; at that moment he was shot dead. By this time the right and left flanks, composed of Kentucky mounted men, had gained the bank. A small party of Indians on each wing fled as if defeated, and the horsemen pursued. As soon as the horsemen were separated from the footmen, the savages fell upon our people with the utmost fury. Major Willis was killed charging the enemy. Captain McMullen discovered the stratagem of the enemy, wheeled about, approached the back of the Indians, and made dreadful havoc in their ranks. Captain Ashton was of the opinion that forty of the enemy fell at the first fire. The Indians gave way and were driven across the St. Joseph River with great slaughter. Two soldiers, Captain Ashton says, signalized themselves on this occasion by using their bayonets to gig the foe like fish.
DAVID WILLIAMS CAME INTO THE CAMP
“Richardville, a Miami chief now dead, who was in the engagement, related that the river ran red with blood, and that he could cross the river on dead bodies. During the battle an incident occurred that deserves to be noticed. An old Indian had two boys who rushed into the river by his side. One son was shot down near him; the old man dropped his gun and seized his son to save the boy’s scalp from his enemies. The other son was killed also. The father drew them to shore and sat down between them, where he was killed.
“Some blame has been attached to General Harmar for not returning to aid Colonel Hardin; it is certainly without foundation. A young Kentuckian, who was wounded through the wrist while in the river, reported that the enemy was completely routed and flying. In this sanguinary engagement, eighty-three regulars were killed; only Captain Ashton and six privates survived. In both engagements one hundred militiamen were killed.
“I cannot, in justice to my feelings, close this communication without saying a word in commendation of General Harmar. I knew him intimately, for I was favored with his personal friendship and was in service under his immediate command for four years, eight months, and twenty-one days. Throughout the whole of the campaign of which I have been writing, I was quartered within twenty feet of the General’s marquee.
“The reader will perceive from this fact that I had the best opportunity of observing everything that happened. My recollection is greatly assisted by my orderly book, in which I recorded every order given by the General and every circumstance I thought worthy of being remembered. But to conclude, I regard General Harmar as a veteran soldier, an accomplished gentleman, and especially as a sincere friend of the poor soldier.
DAVID H. MORRIS”
FORT WAYNE SENTINEL, March 4, 1843
THE FATHER DREW THEM TO SHORE
Ladies and Gentlemen:
As I stand in your presence, I remember that my father, John McGrew, was born in York County, Pennsylvania, in 1766, ten years before the signing of the Declaration of Independence. I remember that he was married in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, and moved to near Georgetown, Kentucky, in 1788. He was one of those men who commenced the settlement of the Ohio Valley, the centennial of which is being so generally celebrated this year. I remember that in 1788 my father’s brother, sick on a flatboat that was decoyed to the shore just above the mouth of the Licking River opposite where Cincinnati now stands, was thought to have been tomahawked, for he was never heard from afterward. It was the custom of the Indians to tomahawk all sick persons who could not be carried into captivity. I also remember that my father was in the bloody and disastrous Indian fight just across your own Maumee River in 1790.
I say I remember these facts. Yes, as they with a multitude of other events come rushing upon my memory, I feel as though I belonged in the dim distance of the past age. Yet, I am glad to be among you today to assist in calling up these recollections and in doing honor to the brave and heroic men—and women, too, God bless them—who blazed their way through the dense forests of this northwestern region ninety to one hundred years ago.
I do not know that I can do better than to recite much of what I wrote to Allan H. Dougall. My letter to him was written last December at the suggestion of the Honorable Charles F. Muhler, mayor of your city. It came about in this way. I saw in the CHICAGO DAILY NEWS of October 23, 1887, that Henry M. Williams of your city had erected a handsome iron fence around the ground formerly occupied by the old fort. He had also erected a flagpole, from the top of which floated a beautiful American flag. And he had formally presented the whole to your city on October 22, 1887, the ninety-third anniversary of the dedication of the 11 old fort. It was stated that this was also the ninety-seventh anniversary of General Harmar’s battle with the Indians at the ford of the Maumee River.
This statement called to my mind the fact that my father was in that engagement with the Indians, and I stated this in a letter to Mayor Muhler. In reply, he wrote me that Colonel Dougall was greatly interested in the early history of Fort Wayne and the Maumee Valley, and that the Colonel would be glad to learn any facts from me relating to the early history of this area. This caused me to write the letter I will now read. Some of you may have read it last winter when it was published in one of your city papers. But as there are doubtless many persons here who have not seen or heard it, you will excuse my reading it before your society.
Kankakee, Illinois
December 11, 1887
Allan H. Dougall, Esq.
Fort Wayne, Indiana
Dear Sir:
Mayor C. F. Muhler states in his letter, dated November 22, that you are the local secretary of the Maumee Valley Monumental and Historical Association, and that you are greatly interested in the early history of Fort Wayne and the Maumee Valley. As my father was with General Harmar in his 1790 campaign against the Indians of the Old Northwest, Mayor Muhler wrote that you thought I must have gained a good deal of traditional information about the Indian campaigns between 1790 and 1794 and about the early history of Fort Wayne.
Well, such is the case, especially in reference to General Harmar’s defeat on the twenty-second of October, 1790. In order to come to a better understanding of what gave rise to General Harmar’s campaign and other expeditions against the Indians of the Northwest, it is necessary for us to recall the treaty made at Fort Harmar on January 9, 1789, by Governor St. Clair with the chiefs and warriors of the Wyandot, Chippewa, Potawatomi, and Sauk nations. 12 This treaty was a renewal and confirmation of the agreement previously made at Fort McIntosh, and it was hoped that the early settlers would be secure in a large degree from molestation by these and the other Indian tribes in the Ohio Valley and the Miami of the Lakes. Undoubtedly this treaty, which gave the general impression that immigrants to the Ohio Valley would be secure against serious molestation, induced the tide of immigration in this direction immediately thereafter.
But it was soon found that notwithstanding this treaty, roving bands of Indians were continuing to commit depredations upon all the new settlements. Horses, cattle, and other forms of property were stolen; settlers were captured and carried off as prisoners; and quite a number of white men were killed near the Miami River. The feeling of alarm and insecurity became very general, and blockhouses were erected in nearly all the new settlements.
In June, 1789, Major Doughty with about 140 men commenced building Fort Washington where Cincinnati now stands. In the fall of that year, General Harmar with three hundred men arrived and took possession of the fort. After all negotiations with the Indians had failed, General Harmar was ordered to attack their towns. In compliance with this order, in the summer and fall of 1790 he gathered a force of thirteen hundred men at Fort Washington. Less than one fourth of the men were regular soldiers; the others were volunteer militiamen. In September he commenced his march against the Indians of the Maumee country, known in early times as the Miami of the Lakes. The Indians were constantly committing depredations upon the white settlers in southern Ohio, northern Kentucky, and, indeed, throughout the entire Ohio Valley.
My father, who had moved from Pennsylvania to Kentucky in 1788, was one of the mounted volunteers who accompanied General Harmar. They marched, as I now recollect, via Greenville, Ohio, to the Maumee country, where they destroyed a few patches of corn and an Indian village near the site of Fort Wayne. Having accomplished this, General Harmar proposed to march back to Fort Washington. 13 This caused great dissatisfaction among the volunteer forces; and a proposition was made to recruit volunteers to attack the Indians, who were known to be not far beyond the north side of the Maumee River.
The volunteer force was organized under Colonel Hardin and other brave officers. On the morning of October 22, 1790, they forded the Maumee River and pushed north to a small prairie, with a boggy strip in the middle which was troublesome to cross on horseback. The Indians lay concealed in the timber on the opposite side. The two rangers and the greater part of the command had crossed the bog and were approaching the timber, wholly unconscious of impending danger, when suddenly the rangers were shot down. My father said:
“There was an awful pause; then all at once the whole forest seemed on fire (this was the result of flintlocks), accompanied by the reports of hundreds of rifles, which sent a shower of bullets into our ranks and resulted in fearful loss of life. My comrades fell on all sides.”
In the hasty retreat that followed, the horses made a rapid approach to the bog and naturally sank into it. While they were struggling through the quagmire, the Indians had a decided advantage. The greatest loss of life occurred here and at the attempted refording of the river. The survivors were scattered in every direction.
My father was one of the five who, under the leadership of “Indian Davie” (who at one time had been an Indian prisoner), pushed northward through a terrible tangle of grapevines, greenbriers, and hazel brush which grew along the St. Joseph River. They succeeded in crossing the river quite a distance above its junction with the St. Mary’s. Then they made their way back on the west side of the river to a point nearly opposite Harmar’s headquarters. Here they crossed the St. Mary’s River and came into camp with their clothes almost torn off them and their flesh fearfully lacerated by thorns and greenbriers.
My father was very severe in his denunciation of General Harmar. He said that Harmar neither sent help to cover the retreating forces nor provided help which the 14 wounded men needed to get back to camp. All Harmar did was to keep a cannon booming so that the stragglers might know where the camp was. Once, after having heard what someone had written in palliation of Harmar’s conduct on that occasion, my father replied: “There is not a word of truth in what he says; Harmar was a distressed old coward.”
To give you some idea of my father’s courage and daring, I will mention one instance. He moved from Kentucky in 1796 and located five miles south of Dayton, Ohio. Soon after he settled there, the Indians stole a mare and two colts from him. Later he found two of the horses at an Indian camp just across the Miami River from Dayton. He tried to get someone in Dayton to go with him to get the mare and colt, but no one dared go. He went to the camp about sundown. As there were only two or three squaws in camp, he took his mare and colt and made all possible speed toward home, which he reached in safety and where he stood sentinel all night.
Mrs. Shroyer saw him pass two miles south of Dayton. A short time later she was shocked and trembled with fear as she saw three Indians in hot pursuit with rifles and tomahawks. Fortunately, night came on, and they lost his trail. The next day my father took his rifle and went alone to the camp. By signs he made them understand that he had retrieved the mare and colt that they had stolen from him. He demanded the other two-year-old colt. By signs, they indicated that it was dead. The Indians never disturbed him again.
My father was engaged in forwarding supplies for General William Henry Harrison’s forces at the time of the fight with the Indians at the Battle of Tippecanoe. I was with my father at Germantown, Montgomery County, Ohio, in the summer of 1840, when he met General Harrison (afterward President Harrison) for the first time after the Tippecanoe campaign. Had I time, I could tell you other exploits of my father with the Indians, but I forbear wearing out your patience. I doubt if there is another man living whose father was in that fight with the Indians on October 22 at the ford of the Maumee.
15Most of this information is traditional, handed down from father to son. I have been greatly helped in calling to mind many of these incidents and occurrences by my brother-in-law, Dr. Samuel H. Binkley, of Alexanderville, Montgomery County, Ohio. He is a geologist of high standing and is one of the noted archaeologists in the country. Dr. Binkley has one of the finest geological and archaeological cabinets to be seen in the West. This collection is closely related to historical and monumental matters.
I will mention that I, too, have some early recollections of Fort Wayne. In the fall of 1838 I passed through here, driving a three-horse team moving a relative to Whitley County, Indiana, near where Columbia City now stands. As I now recollect, Fort Wayne was then a town of log houses, principally. I think the courthouse was a square building with a roof run up to a point from all four sides. If I am not right in this, some of you old settlers can correct me. I passed through this city in 1846 or 1847 on a canalboat with Mr. Tabour, an early settler at Logansport. About the same time, I passed through with Mr. Elsworth, of Lafayette, who was at that time commissioner of patents at Washington. In 1856 Olif Johnson and Colonel Sweet of Galva, Illinois, General Thomas Henderson, now in Congress from the seventh Illinois district, and I went bathing (we called it swimming) in the Maumee River a short distance below your then small city.
Sincerely yours,
JAMES McGREW
You will agree that I have some personal recollections of your city and the Maumee country. I think of Fort Wayne and the Maumee country as historic ground, baptised with the blood of brave and patriotic men. These men were as heroic as any who have lived in this country; and their toils, hardships, daring, and courage, as well as their patriotism, deserve to be kept green in our memories.
FORT WAYNE JOURNAL, August 16, 1888