Allen County, Indiana Genealogy

634 Lawton Place in the Spy Run Neighborhood near the St. Joe River. See Little Turtle.

1916 - Another Indian Skull Dug Up in Lawton Park Lot - fourteen in the past few years

Article from Apr 16, 1916 The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette (Fort Wayne, Indiana) 1916, Indian burial, Lawton park, Indian

1916 - Another Indian Skull Dug Up in Lawton Park Lot - fourteen in the past few years The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Sunday, April 16, 1916, Page 13.

ANOTHER INDIAN SKULL DUG UP IN LAWTON PARK LOT While spading his garden at 634 Lawton place, Friday, Dr. George W. Gillie dug up the skull of an old Indian, which makes the fourteenth to be uncovered on the same lot in the past few years. The skull dug, up by Dr. Gillie was crushed almost flat and beside it lay a copper kettle, knives and trinkets and a big bottle.

It is the general opinion that this particular plot of ground was at one time used as an Indian burying ground. All of the skulls found 80 far have been dug up on the rear of the lot, and no doubt there are many more in the center of it.

634 Lawton place is now the Chief Little Turtle Lawton Place Burial Grounds.

Chief Little Turtle Grave Monument on Kekionga Trail 11 stops on the Heritage Trail by ARCH ( Architecture and Community Heritage).

July 4, 2023 post by Miami Nation of Indians of Indiana on Facebook:

On this date in 1912, Chief Little Turtle's grave was discovered in present day Fort Wayne Indiana almost 100 years to the day of his death (July 14, 1812). A contractor building a house on what is present day Lawton Place near downtown, discovered a Miami grave that would be identified as the Chiefs (part of the identification came from the dress sword buried with the remains which was the dress sword President George Washington had given the Chief). That area of Fort Wayne was originally burial grounds for the city of Kekionga and eventually would become the farm of William Wells. Because William Wells was killed at Fort Dearborn (present day Chicago) in August of 1812 and his farm along with everything around fort Wayne would be burned in the Siege of Fort Wayne in August of 1812, Little Turtle's grave would be lost to history until this day.

Burial date 1812. See our information on Little Turtle Chief of the Miami Indians and Little Turtle on Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. IN DNR Latitude 41.0914 Longitude 85.1323.

Go to: DAR tombstone photos, Find-A-Grave, or Google map

The local Historical Society placed two plaques at the site when it was made into a small park in 1959/60. See Little Turtle Memorial at City of Fort Wayne Parks & Recreation. Local WFFT TV posted UPDATE: Little Turtle Memorial Park August 13, 2014 on vandalism and maintenance issues.

Little Turtle Grave Site 634 Lawton Place is shown in this Street View photo from Google map with over 30 additional photos of various clarity showing the various signs and stones such as 1752-1812 historical society plaque, Meshekinnoquah (Chief Little Turtle) ARCH plaque, and SoundWalk app discussed below.

October 15, 2019 - SoundWalk officially released its first experience in FW at the Little Turtle Memorial! Download the app, bring headphones & visit the burial place of Chief Mihšihkinaahkwa. Hear the voices and stories of local people of the Miami Tribe and deepen your understanding of what it means to be from FW. Download link: www.soundwalkapp.com. Posted by SoundWalk on Facebook. See our SoundWalk section.

August 13, 2023 post by PBS Fort Wayne on Facebook:

We are excited to share that our Voices of the Myaamiaki SoundWalk Experience has reached full capacity! Thank you to all who have shown tremendous interest! For those who weren’t able to RSVP, the SoundWalk Experience is available on the app from any location. Along with that, the Experience will still be accessible at the Chief Little Turtle Memorial following today’s event! We thank you all for your support, see you soon!

Learn more about our next SoundWalk Experience Live Premiere on 8/27, Pearl Street, here: https://pbsfortwayne.org/iconicamerica/

To learn more about the Myaamia, visit: https://miamination.com

#IconicAmericaPBS #PBSFortWayne #PBS #miamitribeofoklahoma #myaamia #soundwalk

#IconicAmericaPBS #PBSFortWayne #PBS #miamitribeofoklahoma #myaamia #soundwalk

Little Turtle Grave posted March 22, 2021 by Friends of the Rivers on YouTube.
Dozens even hundreds of other Miami Indian burial sites were disturbed when houses were built in this neighborhood in the early 1900s.

Chief Little Turtle : Fort Wayne posted Aug 6, 2010 by TheSchaeferTeam on YouTube.

Page 315 shows a drawing of The LittleTurtles Grave in The pictorial field-book of the war of 1812; or, Illustrations, by pen and pencil, of the history, biography, scenery, relics, and traditions of the last war for American independence by Lossing, Benson John, 1813-1891, Publication date 1896 on Archive.org.

Page 177 shows Where Little Turtle is Buried in The pictorial history of Fort Wayne, Indiana : a review of two centuries of occupation of the region about the head of the Maumee River by Griswold, B. J. (Bert Joseph), 1873-1927; Taylor, Samuel R., Mrs, Publication date 1917 on Archive.org. His information is included in the discussion of Mrs. Angeline (Chapeteau) Peltier-Griswold.
Page 184 has a drawing captioned Above are shown a few of the scores of articles taken from Indian graves July 4, 1912, by Charles and Albert Loch- ner while excavating for the dwelling of Dr. George W. Gillie on Lawton Place. Jacob M. Stouder, the present owner of the collection, is firmly of the opinion that the sword is that given by Pres- ident Washington to Chief Little Turtle, and that some of the specimens here ehown are from the chieftain's grave.

Page 190 THE LITTLE TURTLE TABLET. A small tablet marked "Little Turtle, 1751-1812" was placed by Jacob M. Stouder In the rear of the residence property of Dr. George W. Gillie, No. 634 Lawton Place, to mark the spot where Chief Little Turtle is believed to have been buried.

1. ACCOUNT BY J. M. STOUDER. July 4, 1912, will hereafter be memorable to the citizens of Fort Wayne and Allen county. On that day Albert and Charles Loch ner uncovered the grave of Little Turtle, the great Miami war chief. The brothers had contracted to build a house for Dr. George W. Gillie on Lawton place, and in digging the cellar uncovered several Indian graves. Noticing that whatever was in the graves was appropriated by the laborers, the contractors called off the crew and with the assistance of Dr. George W. Gillie dug the drain in which the grave of Little Turtle was found. The finders had no idea of the identity of the body. The skull was carefully kept and presented to Dr. M. W. Ivins, dentist at 1118 Rivermet avenue, who had requested the Lochner brothers to save a good specimen for him. The balance of the remains were scattered and carried away by the curious as mementos. Copied from 3-page article Stouder, J. M. (1912). The Grave of Little Turtle, The Indiana Quarterly Magazine of History, Vol. 8, No. 3 (SEPTEMBER, 1912), pp. 119-121 (3 pages) Published by: Indiana University Press at jstor.org. Also at Indiana Magazine of History. Retrieved from Stouder, J. M. (1912). The Grave of Little Turtle. Indiana Magazine of History. Volume 8, Issue 3, September 1912. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/imh/article/view/5813. At Indiana Magazine of History journal in the archives at Indiana University Scholarworks. Discussed in an April 29, 2022 post with photos of local historical markers on True Fort Wayne Indiana History on Facebook.
2. His burial location has generated controversy as BURIED CONCERNS City's treatment of Miamis' grave sites, remains traces century of evolving thought by Charlie Savage published August 16, 2020 in The Journal Gazette newspaper. See our Indians - Native Americans of Allen County, Indiana page and Anthony Wayne page for more information.
3. Memorial plaques on Lawton Place Little Turtle Site-Lawton Place Cemetery from Mary Penrose Wayne Chapter NSDAR.
4. In 1801 Little Turtle met President Thomas Jefferson. See Conference with Little Turtle editorial note in the Jefferson Papers at The National Archives.
5. Great Memories and History of Fort Wayne has nice photo of his burial site memorial stone.
6. The last of the Miamis book published in 1935 by Winger, Otho, 1877-1946
7. Little Turtle's famed battle humbled U.S. forces by Michael Hawfield published October 20, 1990 in Cityscapes from the archives of The News-Sentinel newspaper.
8. Remembering Little Turtleby Nancy McCammon-Hansen with photo album posted July 5, 2012 in the History Center Notes & Queries blog Remembering Little Turtle showing some Little Turtle Artifacts found July 4, 1912 on Facebook, The Man Little Turtle published July 12, 2012 by Nancy McCammon-Hansen, Some Final Thoughts on Little Turtle published July 13, 2012 by Nancy McCammon-Hansen, and Meshekinnoquah (Little Turtle) published June 20, 2013 by Tom Castaldi.
9. Indiana at 200 (11): ‘Little Turtle’ Led in War and Peace published November 4, 2013 by Andrea Neal on Indiana Policy.org.
10. Group works to realize tribute of Little Turtle by Rosa Salter Rodriguez published November 16, 2014 in The Journal Gazette newspaper.
11. Little Turtle, An Indian Success In War And Peace by Scott S. Smith published December 15, 2014 on InvestorsBusinessDaily.com.
12. Artwork's unusual past traced Preserving a painting on deer hide by Jamie Duffy published April 04, 2015 in The Journal Gazette newspaper.
13. Little Turtle (Miami Chief) on indigenouspeople.net.
14. Mark Krebs posted photos November 7, 2015 of the marker at his last home site in Whitley County near the De le Balme Revolutionary War maker.
15. Discussed April 2, 2013 on the original Great Memories and History of Fort Wayne, Indiana page on Facebook.
16. Find-A-Grave page.
17. Book Little Turtle, Chief of the Miami published in 1954 by staff of the Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County on Internet Archive.
18. Indian Chiefs of the Miami Tribe September 23, 1906 newspaper article posted October 21, 2017 and later discussion October 22, 2017 on the original Great Memories and History of Fort Wayne, Indiana page on Facebook.
19. The home of Little Turtle has several articles on Access Genealogy.com.
20. More ‘buried concerns’: Losing graves has happened fairly frequently in Fort Wayne’s history by Joshua Schipper posted December 15, 2021 in Wikimedia Commons.org. Discusses Chief Little Turtle burial location, Johnny Appleseed and Archer Cemetery, the Broadway Cemetery now McCulloch Park, Chief Richardville burial location.
21. An interesting advertising video showing local landmark markers and more called A Hallmark Moment in Fort Wayne History Today's episode features local history with the telling of Chief Little Turtle & The Battle of Kekionga. See where the battle occurred in modern day landmarks and how these events eventually led to Fort Wayne being established in 1794. Posted March 8, 2022 by Hallmark Home Mortgage-NMLS#53441 on Facebook.