THE FIRST FORT--We know there is confusion about Fort Wayne, and we'd like to clear it up. Historic Fort Wayne is a wonderful recreation of the fort rebuilt in 1815-1816 by Major John Whistler, the Fort's Commandant. The first fort was ordered by General Wayne in 1794, on the high ground overlooking the confluence of the Saint Mary's and Saint Joseph Rivers, and the Miami Tribe's "town" of Kekionga; it was dedicated on October 22, 1794, the day after the General left. A marker at the corner of what is now the intersection of Berry Street and Clay Street, seen in the photo below, shows the location of that original fort. That version of the fort was hastily built, leading to it being reconstructed four years later. Colonel Joseph Hunt began the rebuild with a second fort at the Three Rivers in 1798, two years after the General's death. It was built on the site just east, and slightly south, of FWFD Fire Station #1, downtown on Main Street. So, the Historic Fort Wayne on Spy Run is a replica of and modeled after Whistler's fort, the third fort built in the area to honor early settlers and soldiers.
A REPRODUCTION OF THE ONLY EXISTING ORIGINAL DRAWING OF OLD FORT WAYNE MADE BY MAJOR WHISTLER IN 1816.
Through the co-operative efforts of the Burton Historical Collection of the Detroit Public Library and J. Franklin Jameson, director of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, the author was enabled, in 1915, to find and identify a drawing made in August, 1816, by Major John Whistler, commandant of Fort Wayne. Major Whistler had rebuilt the fort during 1815 and 1816. The drawing had been sent to General A. S, Macomb, at Detroit, who forwarded it to the war department. The drawing shows the ground floor plan of the fort, together with the inside elevation of each building, as well as the elevation of each building outside the pickets. The outside lines indicate the location of the palisades. The present Old Fort Park area was located within the square shown in the drawing. The drawing of Whistler doubtless is the only existing original draft of old Fort Wayne. A drawing by General Wayne, in the war department, was destroyed when the British captured the city of Washington in 1814.
RUINS OF THE LAST BLOCKHOUSE OF OLD FORT WAYNE, IN 1852.
As far as the writer has been able to learn, the original daguerreotype from which the above pen drawing was made is the only existing photographic picture of any of the buildings which formed a part of old Fort Wayne. The daguerreotype Is owned by Mrs. Adam Link, of Fort Wayne, who says of It:
"The picture was made by Charles Stevens, of Kennebunk Port, Maine, who was here as the guest of his cousin. Mrs. O. L. Starkey, my mother, who was then Miss Hannah Fairfield. On the day the picture was made, 'Charley' Munson (later prominent in the affairs of the county, but then a mere lad) was driving his cow to the pasture In 'the old apple orchard," in the present Lakeside. My mother and several others joined him for a walk. When they reached the ruined blockhouse, Mr. Stevens made the picture. The man at the top Is John Fairfield, my uncle. The others, from left to right, are Amanda Henderson (Mrs. Bloomhuff) Addle Fairfield (Mrs. H. .T. Ash). Priscilla Fairfield (Mrs. A. S. Hall), Hannah Fairfield (Mrs. O. L. Starkey), and 'Charley' Munson."
Miss Lizzie Johnson Says: "I am certain this building was torn down in 1852. On returning from a vacation in the summer of that year, we found everybody saying: 'They've torn down the old fort.'"
B. G. Anderson says of this building: "When we children came to Fort Wayne In 1846, with my father, Calvin Anderson, first landlord of the Hedekin house, this log building was still in good repair and was occupied by two Irish families. The Carroll family and Mr. Donovon, with his children. Tim, Mich and Ellen, were the last to make their homes In the historic structure. The building faced the east, overlooking the Maumee."
John H. Jacobs, of Spy Run avenue, also remembers this building well, as It was standing when he came to Fort Wayne. At the present time, there Is a general feeling of deep regret that the fort was allowed to go into decay. The older residents explain the matter by the statement that the course of the Wabash and Erie canal required the destruction of one of the blockhouses and a palisade section, and that In the later years the ruined, dilapidated buildings became the rendezvous of undesirable citizens. The last building, shown in the Illustration, was torn down by John Fairfield In 1852. Some of the wood was made into walking sticks which are preserved as relics.
The History Center has a wonderful collection of historical images. Because the society was founded in 1921, it acquired many invaluable artifacts from the children and grandchildren of Fort Wayne's earliest pioneers. Its photographic collection is full of treasures, and one item in particular of special value is a daguerreotype of a blockhouse from the old 1816-era fort, actually one of two daguerreotypes of it in the collection.
In the fall of 1852, Charles C. Stevens stopped by the crumbling building and photographed his friends seated in front. Located on Main Street near the present site of Fire Station No. 1, the old fort had been abandoned by the U. S. Army garrison in 1819. During the ensuing years several families lived in the structures, including, it is said, some Irish immigrants, but the structures soon became derelict. By the 1850s, little of the fort was left. The pallisades were long gone, and scavengers had taken for souvenirs many of the original timbers. Local residents used other pieces apparently as building mateirals and beams in local houses, including the Merchant Huxford house on Spy Run Avenue, which is still standing.
The late George W. Brackenridge thus described the appearance of the fort in 1830 :
"Timbers of the old fort were standing in 1830. They were about a foot square, eight or ten feet high, pointed at the top. The stump of the flagpole was also in front of the two blockhouses which occupied the high ground at the east end of Main street, north side — both built of hewed logs. These buildings were two stories high, consisting of two large rooms below, same above, both lengthwise north and south. The one farthest from the street was taken down when the canal was dug. The other stood many years afterward, occupied by tenants. A blockhouse for storing arms and ammunition with an all-round over-jet second story, stood about seventyfive feet west of the two aforementioned."
Writing of 1838, John W. Dawson says :
"A common road ran down along the canal and across the old fort ground, between the old well and the only building of the fort then standing. This building stood on the vacant ground [now Old Fort Park] ; it was two-story, and had been changed from a shed to a conical roof. It had been used originally for officers' quarters. A broken pole stood in the center of the parade ground, on which the Federal flag had been originally hoisted. The pickets which had enclosed the ground had nearly all been removed, yet the line where they stood was marked. A post at the gateway at the southwest corner of the stockade on the alley between Berry and Wayne
street, was standing. These pickets and the logs which had composed the other buildings within the pickets, had all been removed by the people for building purposes."
The last of the buildings was torn down in 1852. Early in that year enough of the original stockades and buildings remained to arouse a vigorous but ineffectual protest against their final destruction. In that year Dr. G. W. Bowen, writing in the Laurel Wreath, a local publication, gave utterance to his sentiments in verse. The title of the poem was, "Spare Wayne's Fort." The opening stanza follows :
Why tear it down and spare it not?
Are other days so soon forgot?
Are other scenes no more to be
Brought back to sweet, blessed memory?
And must those walls that served so well
To shield at night from savage foe
That daring band, be leveled low?
The silent truth forbid to tell !
The last paragraph of Blogging Hoosier History states: After the Battle of Fallen Timbers, John Whistler and his wife resided in the garrison at Fort Wayne, and here, in 1800, George Washington Whistler was born, one of fifteen children. George became “Whistler’s Father” the father of James Abbott McNeill Whistler whose renowned oil on canvas, “Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Painter’s Mother,” is known to the world as “Whistler’s Mother.” [ accessed January 26, 2024 ]
George Washington Whistler (May 19, 1800 – April 7, 1849) was a prominent American civil engineer best known for building steam locomotives and railroads.[2]He is credited with introducing the steam whistle to American locomotives.[3] Did he name it whistle from his name Whistler? Accessed January 26, 2024 on Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
Born in 1800, George Washington Whistler was a West Point graduate. A soldier, draftsman, engineer and builder with a knack for constructing railroads, he is credited with bringing the steam whistle to American locomotives. So wide was his renown in 1842— about the time of this little painting—that Czar Nicholas I hired him to build the Moscow-St. Petersburg railway. George Washington Whistler died there doing so, much too young, in 1849. Copied from Getting to Know Whistler’s Father Whistler’s mother is a superstar. But the painter’s dad has languished in obscurity—until now, Jeff MacGregor, June 2014 on Smithsonian Magazine.
Does the name "Whistler" sound familiar? Major John Whistler was Commandant of Fort Wayne at the time the third fort was built in 1815-1816. The fort that Whistler had built was the last in the Three Rivers Region, and on April 19, 1819, was abandoned by the U.S. Army. The name "Whistler" may sound familiar because Major John Whistler was the father of George Washington Whistler, and the grandfather of James Abbott McNeill Whistler whose oil painting on canvas became known to the world as "Whistler's Mother". (Image courtesy of National Gallery of Victoria.)
[ If Whistler's mother is the mother of the artist and he was a grandson of the Commandant, this means she was the daughter-in-law of the Commandant since she was the wife of the son of Commandant Major John Whistler ]
James McNeil Whistler submitted his painting titled “Arrangement in Grey and Black” to the Royal Academy of Art, seeking to have it exhibited at the 104th Exhibition of the Academy in London in 1872. The Academy was not impressed, however, and had decided to reject the painting, before relenting and grudgingly accepting it after the director of the National Gallery, Sir William Boxall, threatened to resign if Whistler’s painting was not included in the exhibition.
Unwilling to display a portrait titled an “arrangement,” the Academy added an explanatory subtitle and displayed it (in the back of the gallery) as “Arrangement in Gray and Black: Portrait of the Painter’s Mother.” Of course it is known today as “Whistler’s Mother,” one of history’s most famous paintings.
Whistler was living in London when he created the painting, having moved to Europe to pursue a career as an artist after being expelled from West Point. According to Whistler, after a model he had hired failed to show up for an appointment, he asked his 67-year-old mother to stand in for her. With no intention of doing so, he ended up creating one of the iconic representations of motherhood.
In 1891 Whistler pawned the painting, and it was purchased by a Paris museum. Today it is displayed at the Musée d’Orsay. It is widely considered to be the most famous painting by an American artist held by a museum outside of the United States.
