News Sentinel Building

 (“Along the Heritage Trail with Tom Castaldi” – July 2015, No. 126)

News Sentinel Building

   

The News-Sentinel Building was constructed in 1925 by Oscar Foellinger, publisher of the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel. Tracing its history to the first newspaper in Fort Wayne, The Sentinel, which began publication as a weekly on July 6, 1833, its first editor of this Democrat newspaper was Thomas Tigar.  Living in Indianapolis at the time, Tigar was a native of Beverly, Yorkshire, England born there in 1807. He came to America in 1826 as an experienced printer and landed in Ashtabula, Ohio. He met his partner S.V.B Noel in Indianapolis and the two came to Fort Wayne to establish the original press for the paper on West Columbia Street. Tigar continued with the paper until 1865. He died in 1875 and is buried in Lindenwood cemetery.

   Bert Griswold relates the story of how the paper acquired its first press.  A used hand-press for the printing of the Indiana State Journal at Indianapolis was purchased and delivered to Fort Wayne. The way was difficult taking six days to transport the load over muddy roads and across swollen streams on rafts.   Type was set and in its July 6th first edition appeared the Declaration of Independence. Its first editorial recapped an oration given on the Fourth of July celebration of 1833 by Hugh McCulloch.

The Sentinel became a daily newspaper, while still publishing a weekly edition, and later merged with the Dawson Times to become the Times and Sentinel.  Under new ownership in 1866, the newspaper was known as The Democrat until 1873 when the name was changed back to The Sentinel.

By 1874, another paper began publication under the name Fort Wayne Daily News.  It was first published as a Republican newspaper which emphasized local news.  Known as “The people’s paper,” the Daily News was a financial success at the turn of the last century and in 1917 purchased The Sentinel.  The new company issued the first edition of the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel on January 1, 1918.

According to author Jim Sack’s chapter in The History of Fort Wayne and Allen County Oscar Foellinger began his newspaper career as a junior accountant at the News Publishing Company during the mid 1890s. In about a decade, Foellinger advanced to the position of business manager.  In 1920, Oscar Foellinger assumed control of The News-Sentinel, which became a leading voice for Republican politics in the region and a strong advocate for civic improvement.  Journalist and historian Scott Bushnell noted in, Hard News and Heartfelt Opinions about the history of the Journal Gazette that Foellinger became president and general manager of the News and Sentinel taking it to prominent heights. On an autumn hunting trip to Canada in 1936, Oscar died unexpectedly.  Upon his death his daughter, Helene Foellinger, became publisher and remained active until her death in 1987.

Author Sack noted that Helene Foellinger and her mother Esther established the Foellinger Foundation in the aftermath of the loss of father and husband. Financing directed to community projects such as Foellinger Outdoor Theater, Foellinger-Freimann botanical Conservatory were among the substantial contributions.

Since 1958, the News-Sentinel Building has been known as the Foellinger Center and later served as the headquarters of the United Way of Fort Wayne as well as other not-for-profit organizations.

In 1950, The News-Sentinel entered into a joint operating agreement with the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette to share common printing and other business activities.  Fort Wayne Newspapers broke ground in 1956 and both papers began publishing from a new facility at 600 West Main Street in 1958. A new pressroom and paper storage facility was completed during 2007.

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Allen County Historian Tom Castaldi is author of the Wabash & Erie Canal Notebook series; hosts “On the Heritage Trail,” which is broadcast. Mondays on WBOI, 89.1 FM; and “Historia Nostra” heard on Redeemer Radio. Ft. Wayne 106.3 FM and South Bend 95.7 FM.  Enjoy his previously published columns on the History Center’s blog, “Our Stories,” at history centerfw.blogspot.com.

An Old Apple Tree of Fort Wayne Lore

 (“Along the Heritage Trail with Tom Castaldi” – June 2015, No. 125)

An Old Apple Tree of Fort Wayne Lore

Miami “Chiefess” Tacumwah gave birth to Pechewa or Richardville in 1761 near an old apple tree somewhere west of the Saint Joseph River, in the village of Kekionga.  This fruit-bearing tree, with its trunk alleged to have measured twelve feet in circumference, became a part of local tradition.  It was an early example of a European tree foreign to North America and played an interesting role during the siege of Fort Wayne in 1812.

The tree is suspected to have sprouted from an apple seed accidentally dropped or deliberately planted by an early French trader or priest visiting the Three Rivers region. It was destroyed during a heavy spring storm in 1866, however, its main trunk was left behind for some time.  It produced fruit said to be small and usually ripened in October.  Jesse Lynch Williams, of Indiana Internal Improvements renown, was quoted as saying, “We need not question its identity. There are specimens of the hardier varieties in this country now bearing fruit at the age of 150 to 200 years.”

 According to a story recounted from the Siege of 1812 an Indian warrior climbed the ancient apple tree every day for several days to harass the soldiers in the fort. From high in the tree he would throw his arms about like a fowl flapping his wings, and would crow out like a rooster.  Finally, a marksman in the garrison knocked the taunting brave out of the tree with an amazingly well aimed shot which may have been three hundred fifty yards away.

 So popular were the local legends about the tree that George Winter, an important itinerant painter of the 1830s and 1840s, was enticed to include a sketch of the tree in his collection.  Author and historian Wallace Brice saw fit to include a drawing of an old apple tree as one of a very few illustrations in his 1868 History of Fort Wayne book.  A reproduction of Winter’s drawing is found in the exhaustive work titled, Indians and a Changing Frontier The Art of George Winter with a caption reading, “Sketch of the Apple Tree noted for being over 100 years old and the reputed birth place of chief Richardville. St. Joseph River, June 19^th 1848.”

In 1962, the Dow Jones & Company’s National Observer published a column about the old tree.  The Observer reported, “The item cited the ‘famous apple tree’ of Fort Wayne, about which ‘Little Turtle, Indian leader, and his followers had their dwellings clustered’ in the late 1700s.” It continued noting that the tree was, “more than three feet in diameter at the time the print was made and was said to have been bearing fruit for more than a hundred years.”

 Wesley Bashore writing for the Journal Gazette mentioned the National Observer’s reference and attempted to locate the site of the legendary tree. At that time he consulted with a number of local historians who suggested, “a spot about four houses down from Columbia on Edgewater.” Bashore was not satisfied and ended his story by saying that there simply was not enough evidence to locate precisely the positioning of the tree and that he, “was more than willing to hand this flaming torch over to others hands.”  One day reliable evidence may surface.  Meanwhile, an approximate location of the “Old Apple Tree” has been remembered along the 1994 Fort Wayne Bicentennial’s Heritage Trail at a marker found on Edgewater Avenue’s park strip.

During the years before Richardville died in 1841 he often pointed out the old apple tree to settlers. He recalled that it was there when he was a boy and that it was then a “bearing tree” and that the “hut” in which he was born stood very near.

Allen County Historian Tom Castaldi is author of the Wabash & Erie Canal Notebook series; hosts “On the Heritage Trail,” which is broadcast. Mondays on WBOI, 89.1 FM; and “Historia Nostra” heard on Redeemer Radio. Ft. Wayne 106.3 FM and South Bend 95.7 FM.  Enjoy his previously published columns on the History Center’s blog, “Our Stories,” at history centerfw.blogspot.com.

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Kaboo the African Missionary

 (“Along the Heritage Trail with Tom Castaldi” – May 2015, No. 124)

Kaboo the African Missionary

One of the most remarkable persons to grace the Fort Wayne region was an African male student born in 1873 who took the name Samuel Morris when he came to the United States in 1892.  Here he entered the Fort Wayne Methodist College to study to become a missionary.  Born in Liberia, he was known as Prince Kaboo from the tribe of Kru and had become a Methodist convert. He was known to have a charming personality and a zealous religious vocation that endeared him to his classmates quickly making him one of the best-liked students at the college.  However, Samuel Morris became ill in 1893 and died. Prince Kaboo was so loved and respected that his touching story of conversion, his enthusiasm for education and his untimely death was widely told and attracted many new students who enrolled in the Methodist College.

His life’s journey was a difficult one as well as one filled with discovery, great faith and charity.  As the son of the tribal chief, Kaboo’s father had lost a battle with an opposing village. Following some ancient custom, the victorious chief demanded the defeated chief’s son to hold as a hostage until certain tributes were paid. The demands were unreasonable and virtually impossible to pay.  Kaboo remained a prisoner and suffered difficult torturers including beatings with poisonous vines. He nearly lost his life even refusing to lessen his plight when the cruel master offered to exchange him for his sister.

One night after being severely beaten and passed out, he awoke to a bright light and heard a voice say, “rise and flee.”  Confused and probably in pain and dazed, he ran off into the jungle.  For days he moved through a vast and dangerous country, with no conception of where he might be but guided by a light. Lindley Baldwin writing Morris’ biography wrote, “Whether it was an external light or mental illumination that guided Kaboo, his pathway was made clear.” After experiencing one hazard after another, he stumbled onto a missionary camp the only important stronghold of civilized law.

Here he found refuge. Also, he was taught the English language and gradually learned he wanted to become a missionary.  Subsequently, Kaboo’s name was changed when he was baptized as “Samuel Morris” a name chosen for him honoring a benefactor banker from Fort Wayne, Indiana.  Sammy was told he must go to America to receive an education and was told to seek out Rev. Stephen Merritt in New York.

Without funds Sammy somehow managed to reach the United States.  After an arduous ocean crossing, he found Merritt, a wealthy soul, who took Sammy in, fed him and clothed him. Sammy repaid Merritt by surprising him with his convictions and according to author Baldwin, Sammy’s ability to communicate in a matter of fact tone never using “oratorical tricks of professional revivalist.”  Shortly thereafter, Sammy was sent by train to Fort Wayne to enroll at the Methodist College.  President Thaddeus C. Reade was hesitant to accept this poor, black boy, whose academic training had been sadly neglected.  The school was in severe financial trouble facing closure, yet Dr. Reade enrolled Sammy. On the following Sunday he told about Sammy who had arrived with no money and how he had accepted him on faith. Although only a little was first collected it spawned the idea of creating a “Samuel Morris Faith Fund” that continued to grow. It is that fund with the infectious faith of Samuel Morris that made it possible to move the school to Upland, Indiana.

Although Sammy dreamed of returning to his homeland as a missionary, in January 1893, he caught a severe cold and later developed symptoms that could not be overcome. He told his friends “I am so happy. I have seen the angels. They are coming for me soon.” Admitted to St. Joseph Hospital, On May 12, 1893, a nun of the Poor Handmaid of Jesus Christ, Sister Helen summoned Dr. Stemen who found Sammy had died in his chair.

When Fort Wayne Methodist College closed in 1894 and moved to Upland to begin a new life as Taylor University, one of its first two buildings was named Samuel Morris Hall and nearby a reflecting pool with lifelike statues all commemorate the spirit of Prince Kaboo.

Allen County Historian Tom Castaldi is author of the Wabash & Erie Canal Notebook series; hosts “On the Heritage Trail,” which is broadcast. Mondays on WBOI, 89.1 FM; and “Historia Nostra” heard on Redeemer Radio. Ft. Wayne 106.3 FM and South Bend 95.7 FM.  Enjoy his previously published columns on the History Center’s blog, “Our Stories,” at history centerfw.blogspot.com.

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Legend of the Water Panther

(“Along the Heritage Trail with Tom Castaldi” – Mar 2015, No. 123)

Legend of the Water Panther

For several years, residents in rural Allen County have heard rumors of a big cat roaming the countryside. In fact, a News Sentinel article featured a front page story accompanied by a photograph. Even so, those who have encountered the big animal do not need convincing while others remain skeptical.  

News Channel 15 was once presented with a video of what appeared to be a mysterious big cat in nearby Adams County. When the somewhat shaky video was shown to animal experts it was agreed that the image was that of a big cat and could be a cougar or a leopard. Wabash County Chronicle (2010) authors Ron Woodward and Gladys Harvey wrote, “People near Hanging Rock, up and down the (Wabash) river, claim to either hear or see a large cat. Others claim that their dogs act strangely at times as if intimidated by something.”

If such an animal came up missing from a zoo or a licensed dealer, the law requires that the registered animal must be reported. The question remains whether or not all private owners’ always report their missing pets.  Real or perceived, what are the odds the big beast was some other breed and one that once prowled the Midwest countryside?

An Associated Press story in June 2012 recounted that cougars were spreading across the Midwest one hundred years after they had been reduced to near extinction. Experts interviewed say critters such as cougars are known to be secretive and mostly keep to riverbanks and wooded areas, usually avoiding humans while feeding on deer, turkeys and raccoons.

With these sightings it brings to mind myths held by the Miami people who populated the Three Rivers woodlands in centuries past.  References to big cats extend back to the early inhabitants of the region such as Civil Chief Richardville’s Miami name pinsiwa translates “wild cat.” According to Mike Floyd author of l’Anguille Snakes in the Grass, Tecumseh was named for “Panther Passing By.” He speculated that Tecumseh’s name is derived from lore of the large wild cat known as Shipeshi “the sacred water panther. Or, historian Jacob Dunn wrote that the name Tecumseh belonged to the Spirit Panther totem which stood for a meteor or comet.

Miami descendant and Whitley County Historical Museum Director Dani Tippmann said, “There definitely were panthers around here.” The Miami tell of the “Water Panther” that lived near rivers and lakes.  Children were warned not to get close to the water for fear the panther would drag them into the depths. The age-old question arises whether or not there is a kernel of truth in most myths.  It is known that there are some large cats that prefer water and its surroundings.

Details of the monster Water Panther vary from community to community. Could those big cat accounts in the news possibly be a Jaguarundi?  A picture of one appears in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1964 film Marnie. Known to roam present-day American Southwest, this big panther is a good swimmer and prefers dense cover with some open areas.  If cougars or leopards are being reported, why isn’t it possible that variations of the species are being noticed?  With its cat-like body about the size of a Labrador retriever, the Jaguarundi has a long tail, short legs and some say has an otter-like or cat-like head. A female can deliver her young in several shades of color including black, tan, gray or chestnut.  A Jaguarundi is considered a solitary animal that feeds on birds, rabbits and small rodents.

 As we look for how such creatures could be spotted in our neighborhoods, shouldn’t the Miami tale of “water” or “spirit panther” be looked at more carefully?   Could it be we might take a lesson from the lore of the Miami that it is this mysterious big cat which is returning to the Great Lakes country?  We’ll have to wait until we catch one on video tape with a sharper focus.

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Allen County Historian Tom Castaldi is author of the Wabash & Erie Canal Notebook series; hosts “On the Heritage Trail,” which is broadcast. Mondays on WBOI, 89.1 FM; and “Historia Nostra” heard on Redeemer Radio. Ft. Wayne 106.3 FM and South Bend 95.7 FM.  Enjoy his previously published columns on the History Center’s blog, “Our Stories,” at history centerfw.blogspot.com.

Central Catholic National Catholic Basketball Champs

 (“Along the Heritage Trail with Tom Castaldi” – Feb 2015, No. 122)

Central Catholic National Catholic Basketball Champs

Basketball season in Indiana is a special time and its tradition-storied history is filled with tales retold and others that have faded with time.  According to Play On Celebrating 100 Years of High School Sports in Indiana, the book’s dust cover notes state, “Indiana without high school sports would be an unthinkable place.” Some would say more so before Class Basketball became the rule, however, looking back there were other issues.

 Somewhat forgotten as memories fade with time is the debilitating influence of the Ku Klux Klan.  The Indiana Klan had come into prominence in the 1920s. As such it had been successful in targeting, “Roman Catholics, followed by Jews, foreign-born immigrants and African-Americans” and succeeded in eliminating these groups from the Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA).  

Play On goes on, “Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, the Association barred Catholic, private and segregated African-American schools from participating in IHSAA tournaments.  (However the) schools were under no probation against playing IHSAA schools during the regular season.”  That meant not playing in the celebrated annual state basketball tournament. 

Meanwhile, Catholic schools organized and participated in their own National Catholic Basketball league and held their own state tournament. Bob Heiny was a student at Fort Wayne’s Central Catholic High School and explained that his school joined that league, which presented its own playoff at the state level as well as a national tournament. The schools that turned in a winning season or won their state competition were invited to play for the National Catholic Basketball Championship title.  

By the end of the 1939 regular season, the Central Catholic (CC) basketball team finished its schedule losing only four of their twenty-one games. CC’s 1939 Echo yearbook reported the season’s results and how Coach John Levicki led his squad during the regular season competing against IHSAA and private schools alike. Among their seventeen wins were teams such as Elmhurst, Anderson, North Side and Concordia. The CC winning record qualified the team to compete in the State Catholic Tournament which they won beating Catholic schools from Anderson, Decatur and Indianapolis.  It earned them the right to compete in the Nationals.

In 1939, the CC’s hardwood squad included Jim Boedeker, George Bitler, Gene Maxwell, Ed Gorman, Bob Heiny, Ed Stanczak, Ed Dehner, Ed Klotz, John Falvy and Nick Leto.  The CC Irish swept Central Catholic of Wheeling, W.Va. 41-24, and Southeast Catholic of Philadelphia, Penna. 46-37. Moving on to the quarter finals they beat St. Basil’s of Pittsburg, Penna. 45-26. Now playing in Chicago they rolled over St. George of Evanston, Ill. 47-31. Hundreds of Fort Wayne fans traveled to the Loyola University gym and witnessed the final game which came down to the wire with Fort Wayne Central Catholic overcoming Chicago Leo Catholic High School with a final score of 44-37.

World War II brought change to the American culture.  Perhaps the changes had something to do with the IHSAA Athletic Council’s decision to no longer discriminate against any group from playing in its tournament. The exclusion rule that kept targeted groups which were perceived as a threat to the KKK was overturned on December 20, 1941, when the Council voted to end twenty years of discrimination.  

One other event took place before the ban was lifted that was ruled to become effective at the beginning of the 1942-1943 season.  The 1939 CC squad lost at least five of its players who were replaced in the 1940 season with the roster that included Ed Stancazk, Ed Klotz, Ed Dehner, Bob Heiny, Nick Leto, Harold Morthorst, John Kartholl, Dick Krouse, Bob Walker and Bert Keenen.  After Fort Wayne CC took both the 1939 State and National Tournament titles…they did it again in 1940.

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Allen County Historian Tom Castaldi is author of the Wabash & Erie Canal Notebook series; hosts “On the Heritage Trail,” which is broadcast. Mondays on WBOI, 89.1 FM; and “Historia Nostra” heard on Redeemer Radio. Ft. Wayne 106.3 FM and South Bend 95.7 FM.  Enjoy his previously published columns on the History Center’s blog, “Our Stories,” at history centerfw.blogspot.com.

The Lincoln Highway

 (“Along the Heritage Trail with Tom Castaldi” - Nov 2014,  No. 119)

The Lincoln Highway

Tom Castaldi

At the south approach of the Fort Wayne’s Harrison Street Bridge is an embedded plaque with these words, “Lincoln Highway Bridge New York 724 Miles - San Francisco 2,660 miles.”  Directly across Harrison Street, on the north end another panel gives the names of the Indiana Allen County Commissioners and the date which reads, “1915”.

Lincoln Highway bridge

Jan Shupert-Arick in her book The Lincoln Highway Across Indiana has over 180 illustrations and features the Harrison Street Bridge.  It is described as a concrete structure built at a cost of $200,000 before it opened in 1916. Jan noted that, “A photograph of the bridge was printed in the Lincoln Highway guide as an example of how bridges could be designed to beautify communities and enhance the travelers’ experience.”  

From north of the city traveling south on Harrison Street the Lincoln Highway traveler crossed the Saint Mary’s River.  Continuing toward downtown, and now a portion of the Heritage Trail, it is still possible to experience revisiting one of America’s grand transportation achievements.

Fort Wayne has had a long and rich heritage when it comes to providing paths for the movement of people.  Because of a Continental uplift known as the Saint Lawrence Divide, and ancient glacier action, river ways flow in all four directions of the compass.  The Miami people understood the significance and Chief Little Turtle described the place in 1795 as, “That glorious gate through which all the good words of our chiefs had to pass from the north to the south and from the east to the west.”

George Washington saw the advantages of cutting a canal across that glorious gate known as the Maumee-Wabash Portage.  It was the only land barrier interrupting an all-water way connection between Lake Erie with the Wabash-Ohio-Mississippi valley system.  Fort Wayne the highest point along the line was dubbed the “Summit” for the construction of the longest canal in the western hemisphere. Later, as railroads mimicked the canal route and it seems fitting that the first cross continental highway would find its way through Allen County.

It was Indiana businessman Carl Fisher who envisioned America’s first coast-to-coast motor highway in 1913.  Fisher of Indianapolis working with his friend James Allison, together caught the attention of the auto makers to help finance a passable coast-to-coast roadway. As Shupert-Arick points out, Allison held the business skills while Fisher provided the vision and, “the auto industry the beneficiary.”  In September 1914, they announced the creation of the Lincoln Highway with a route winding from Times Square to San Francisco.  Fort Wayne was a point along the way and the Harrison Street, Lincoln Highway Bridge was constructed to accommodate the new automobile route.

Construction of the Lincoln Highway

The original 1915 Lincoln Highway entered Indiana from Ohio at Allen County. It passed through the communities of Zulu, Townley, Besancon, New Haven and Fort Wayne.  From Fort Wayne the Lincoln Highway headed toward Goshen, which later in 1926 became U.S. 33.  Known as the “1915 Route,” it passed through Churubusco through South Bend and on to Valparaiso.  In 1926, in an effort to shorten the distance, a new course was laid out passing through Columbia City, Warsaw, Bourbon, Plymouth and reconnecting the older route at Valparaiso.

After the 1915 opening, the U.S. Army conducted a 3,239 mile transcontinental convoy over the Lincoln Highway in 1919 from Washington DC to San Francisco. The story has been told of 28 year old Lt. Colonel who experienced the excursion, understood its military importance, its economic value and became the impetus for the Interstate system that he, Dwight D. Eisenhower later inaugurated when becoming President of the United States.

Allen County Historian Tom Castaldi  and retired Essex Vice President, is author of the Wabash & Erie Canal Notebook series; a contributing writer  for Fort Wayne Monthly magazine; hosts “On the Heritage Trail,” which is broadcast Mondays on Northeast Indiana Public Radio WBOI, 89.1 FM; and “Historia Nostra” heard on Redeemer Radio 106.3 FM Fort Wayne and 95.7FM South Bend.

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Forming Fort Wayne

 (“Along the Heritage Trail with Tom Castaldi” - Oct 2014, No. 118)

Forming Fort Wayne

Tom Castaldi

Because of the Maumee-Wabash portage was the most direct link between New France in the upper Great Lakes and the Mississippi River, the Three Rivers region was especially important. The most significant geographical feature in the region is the confluence of the Saint Mary’s River and the Saint Joseph River which form the Maumee River. The short distance overland between them, which eventually flows to the Atlantic, and the Wabash system to the west, which in turn flows into the Ohio, the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico, came to be the “portage” of choice.  A carrying place, it was a strip of land usually described as nine miles in length where travelers could transport their cargoes from one water system to the next.

This was a natural crossroads at the continental divide that first attracted the indigenous people over the course of thousands of years. It later caught the attention of the European explorers and traders and the American pioneer settlers who continued to develop the area as a transportation and communications center.

Miami Chief Little Turtle expressed its importance eloquently at the Treaty of Greenville in 1795 when he called it “that glorious gate…through which all the words of our chiefs had to pass from north to south and from east to west.” At the treaty William Henry Harrison insisted that it remain open for all.  Arguably, it’s one of the main reasons the Three Rivers’ villages of Kekionga, Fort Wayne and surrounding communities are located here at all.

Retired Allen County Soil Conservation Officer Dan McCain noted part of the portage story pertains to the glacial times. The subtle differences relate to the fact that the Wabash has been a river much longer than the Maumee even though the St. Joseph and St. Mary’s are essentially the same age as the upper Wabash.  An enormous volume of water passed over the continental divide at Fort Wayne when the glacial ice blocked the outlet to the north east and to the Atlantic.  It was that flooding action that formed the huge valley that the Little Wabash River and Wabash now occupy.  It caused this place to become the preferred portage since it was so well supported by the great valley.

The unique feature of a continental divide brought the rivers together formed at the end of the last Ice Age 12,000 years ago.  When the retreating glacier of the Wisconsin Lobe left massive end moraines, or ridges, they deflected the courses of the St. Joseph and the St. Mary's rivers to the west. 

The slackwater glacial “Lake Maumee,” which had filled to the brim and overtopped what we know today as the Saint Lawrence Continental Divide, broke thorough a long, low portion of the Fort Wayne Moraine.  It sent a vast volume of water flowing into the Little Wabash River, which leads to the Wabash then into the Ohio and finally the Mississippi River.

At the end of the Ice Age Lake Maumee began to recede and halted its flow into the Wabash. Due to silt accumulations and a massive log jam it recaptured the St. Joseph and St. Mary’s rivers into the Maumee system by diverting them to the east.  “Lake Maumee” appeared in six distinct lower levels to finally become what we know today as Lake Erie.  In the vast flat footprint of Lake Maumee came the two-million acre Great Black Swamp extending in a wedge shape from east of Fort Wayne to the Michigan line and to Toledo thus taking in most of northwestern Ohio.

As the glacial lake gradually receded, the Maumee River formed as a young river and became the principal drainage for the region.  For centuries it was the only way through the otherwise impenetrable Great Black Swamp.  Completing the Wabash & Erie Canal in Ohio opened the area for transportation and put Indiana in commercial reach of the East Coast.

After the coming of the Canal, the importance of the portage declined in the 1830s and by the time of the Civil War it was little more than a trail through the western marshes of the country. With the great drainage projects of the 1890s, it virtually disappeared leaving behind the community we call Fort Wayne.

Allen County Historian Tom Castaldi  and retired Essex Vice President, is author of the Wabash & Erie Canal Notebook series; a contributing writer  for Fort Wayne Monthly magazine; hosts “On the Heritage Trail,” which is broadcast Mondays on Northeast Indiana Public Radio WBOI, 89.1 FM; and “Historia Nostra” heard on Redeemer Radio 106.3 FM Fort Wayne and 95.7FM South Bend.

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