Rescuing Catherine Dinklage from the Basement!

A commemoration of the 90th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution needs to acknowledge the decades of hard work on the part of Allen County women to win the vote. Some of Indiana's earliest woman suffrage pioneers - Mary Frame Thomas, Beulah Puckett Ninde and her husband Lindley Ninde - were part of the state's and the nation's earliest efforts to win greater women's rights, including suffrage. Before the Civil War, soon after the first national women's rights meeting at Seneca Falls, New York, they organized state and local groups to bring about change. In the following decades as woman suffrage became associated with the temperance movement, efforts in Allen County were blocked by the growing power of the liquor industry.

At the turn of the 20th century, thanks to suffrage leaders from Cook County, Illinois, and local women's club leaders, the suffrage movement came back to life stronger than ever. By the time the 19th amendment was finally ratified, women in Allen County served on the local school board and on the board of health. Catherine E. Dinklage was elected to the city council, where she served a four year term.

Unfortunately, most of Allen County's pioneer women's rights leaders have slipped into oblivion. As far as we know, they did not keep diaries or write long letters detailing their experiences. Thanks to efforts to preserve contemporary newspapers, we nevertheless have records of their public efforts. Recovering their long and often frustrating years to win a role in public affairs is hard work. Finding photographs can be equally daunting. Take Catherine Dinklage as a case in point. Her only known picture is part of an official collage of city council members in the 1920s. Unfortunately, the last known sighting of this weighty monster was in the basement of the History Center. Shouldn't Catherine be rescued?

Franke Park Day Camp and Wildcat Baseball: Two Amazing Fort Wayne Summer Traditions

My two children are wrapping up a summer in which they participated in two venerable Fort Wayne traditions - Wildcat Baseball and the day camp at Franke Park. It is easy to take these two summertime programs for granted, especially if one does not have young children or grandchildren, but collectively, we as a community shouldn't. Both are great programs that have literally defined summer for generations of Fort Wayne children, and both are an important part of the shared cultural experience of this city.

Much has been written in the news of late about the 50th anniversary of Wildcat. The story of its founding by Dale McMillen ("Mr. Mac"), founder and president of what would become Central Soya, is well-known. After meeting a group of dejected boys who had been cut from the roster of a local Little League team because their playing skills were not good enough, McMillen created the Wildcat Baseball League with the motto, "Everybody makes the team." The concept was brilliant. In addition to giving boys (and later girls) a chance to play the game and learn basic baseball skills, it did something even more profound for its time. It promoted good sportsmanship, encouraged children of diverse racial backgrounds to play together at a time when there was still widespread segregation, and it was underwritten by McMillen's foundation, making the program free and enabling children from a wide range of economic backgrounds to participate and interact. The spirit of Mr. Mac is still very much evidence, fifty years after the league's founding. As a parent watching his children develop their skills and seeing the patient, good-spirited leadership of the coaching staff, I recognize that this is something very special in our community. On September 19, Bill Derbyshire, a long-time staff member of the McMillen Foundation, will present a lecture at the History Center about Mr. Mac and Wildcat baseball. I encourage readers to attend.

Franke Park Day Camp will be celebrating its 65th anniversary next year. Founded in 1946, the camp evolved into its present form under the leadership of Dennis L. Gerlock, who became its director in 1950 and remained until his retirement in 1975. (He died in 1984). Gerlock sought to give campers an outdoor summertime experience that centered around three important themes: basic camping skills, nature education, and Native American lore. As children hiked through the impressive urban forest that comprises much of Franke Park (itself a wonderful and under-appreciated community asset), they were mentored by older, skilled campers, many of whom came up through the same program as the children they led. Such features as Bullet Hill, Bloody Gorge, and the Mud Slide became endearing experiences shared by generations of local residents. Today, Gerlock is still venerated, and his traditions are carefully preserved by Chris Freehill, long-time director of the camp. Children perform Native American dances, hear stories, and sing campfire songs - the very same ones that their parents and grandparents enjoyed. Each year the camp season culminates in a large pow-wow with a huge bonfire, and all of the campers are invited back to share the experience with their counsellors.

Speaking as one who did not grow up in Fort Wayne, it is easy for me nonetheless to see how much Wildcat and the Franke Park camp have enriched this community. They serve as local cultural markers that help define this city for young people. It is entirely appropriate for the History Center to pay homage to McMillen, Gerlock, and the Fort Wayne Parks Department for preserving them. They are the sort of programs that help forge a shared community memory. As local historians, we need to acknowledge their importance.

The Mystery of Washington Corpse

In Thomas B. Helm's History of Allen County, Indiana, published by Kingman Brothers in 1880, an unusual name appears among the list of early settlers of Maumee Township. On page 165, staff writer L. H. Newton relates: "Prominent among the other early settlers of this township were Jabez Phillips, James Johnson, Charles Harding, Benjamin Johnson ___ Flint, ___Crapo, Washington Corpse, J. N. Sweet, Geore Platter, and James Shirley." Many of these names are instantly recognizable. But Washington Corpse? No such person appears in the land grant or deed records of Allen County (indeed, the surname "Corpse" seems virtually unknown). He does not appear inthe 1830, 1840, or 1850 census anywhere in the United States, and further, he is absent from the court record indices for the Circuit Court of Allen County and from the probate records.

So who was Washington Corpse? Was Newton having a bit of fun with his readers, inserting a comical, fictious name among the list of settlers, seeing if he could get away with it? Washington's name was repeated in Robertson's Valley of the Upper Maumee River, published in 1889 (1: 387), but when I was compiling the Maumee Township chapter for the new Allen County history (published in 2006), I still had my initial doubts, so I left out Washington's name, thinking he was a figment of Newton's imagination.

But Newton provided us another small clue by stating in the Springfield Township chapter that Corpse had been the first to marry in Springfield Township, and that his bride was one Miss Runnells, with the marriage performed in the spring of 1837. An examination of the Allen County marriage records reveals this record with a slight variation: Washington Corp and Angeline Reynolds, married 26 November 1836, Marriage Book 1-B, page 34.

So Washington existed after all, even though Newton had butchered his name. But who was he, exactly? The surname "Corp" or "Corpe" is slightly more common than "Corpse," but we still could find no records in the land or court records. The online index of land grant records of the Bureau of Land Management in Washington, D.C., shows that Harvey W. Corpe bought land in Elkhart County from the Fort Wayne Land Office in 1837 and 1844, as did his brother, Benjamin F. Corpe. Going to Ancestry.com, we do find Harvey Washington Corpe, son of Joseph and Sarah (Tombe) Corpe, born in Clinton County, N.Y., on 24 October 1801, and died in Union County, Oregon, on 5 December 1882. Could he be our Washington? Probably not.

A submission on the Ancestry site shows that Harvey married Fannie Belinda Durkee on 6 November 1823 in New York, and she was still listed as his wife in Elkhart County on the 1850 census. So either Washington Corp of Allen County was a bigamist, marrying Angelina in a clandestine marriage while squatting on land in Allen County and then moving with his wife to Elkhart, or the two men were not the same. Perhaps our Washington Corp was using an alias.

The mystery, at this point, cannot be solved. We do not know what became of Washington and Angelina (Reynolds) Corp. Except for their marriage record, they generated no records here, and they both appear to have died without a trace.

The story illustrates how local history and genealogy can be a fickle thing. Not everyone who settled in Allen County left behind a paper trail. Not everyone had descendants to remember them. Some people fall through the cracks of our local history and are forgotten in the mists of time. Washington Corp seems to have been such a person - though he did actually exist. Perhaps more information will be uncovered from a family Bible that will establish his identity, but for the moment, he remains lost. Washington, we hardly knew ye!

History Center Rescues Farnsworth Artifacts

By now many of you have heard that the “Philo T. Farnsworth Television Museum,” recently of Auburn, closed and sold the majority of its over 700 piece collection of American popular culture and historical materials. Since 2003 the History Center has held discussions with the collection’s owner, a private citizen from Chicago, to acquire some of only a handful of historical artifacts actually related to Fort Wayne history.

When requests to the collection’s owner for donations or pre-auction purchases were rejected, the History Center joined several hundred other private collectors and museums to vie for pieces from the liquidated collection. The auction was held on site at the World War II Victory Museum and also offered to the world through an online bidding option, which was the first time the History Center has participated in an online auction.

The History Center was successful in purchasing seven items from the collection’s auction, including the first television made by Magnavox in Fort Wayne (circa 1946-1947), a rare radio and phonograph combo unit and three other small radios all from the 1940s produced by the Farnsworth Radio and Television Corporation, and a nice collection of advertising and product materials from the 1930s to the 1950s related to Capehart, Farnsworth, and ITT.

Perhaps the most intriguing purchase was a large advertising banner, dated 1940 and reading (in part) “Farnsworth Radio…from the home of television.” Support for these purchases came from the History Center’s Collections Fund and the Waterfield Foundation.

Through this purchase the History Center looked to supplement its already extensive collection of historical materials related to Philo Farnsworth, the Capehart-Farnsworth Radio and Television Corporation, and other elements of 20th century television and radio production in Allen County. History Center members and partners should rest assured that the seven newly acquired artifacts will now be preserved and shared with our community for generations in a professional manner.

In fact, some of the purchased artifacts could be included in a new permanent exhibition gallery entitled “Made in Allen County,” which has long planned to feature the Philo Farnsworth story and is scheduled for unveiling in 2011. In the meantime, the newly acquired artifacts have been placed on display at the History Center and will be temporarily exhibited until November.

The Indomitable Rhesa Swinney

One of the treasures of the History Center's collection is the daguerreotype of Rhesa Swinney (1833-1911), daughter of Thomas and Lucy (Taber) Swinney.

A note found behind the image in its case bears the date of December 25, 1851, indicating that it was probably a Christmas gift from the daughter to her parents. The identity of the photographer is not known, but it may well have been Archibald McDonald, Fort Wayne's most prolific daguerreian artist who had arrived from Buffalo the year before. The result of this Christmas sitting is one of the most exquisite portraits of the period.

There is a sense of immediacy about a daguerreotype. As the author Joan Severa observes, "Besides being the truest glimpse of a moment in the past, it is also a peek into the life and personality of a real person living in a time so different from our own. We experience inescapable emotions when viewing these images. A certain vivid face, looking out at you, with its voice just a breath from speaking, can sometimes stop your heart." (Joan L. Severa, My Likeness Taken: Daguerreian Portraits in America [2005], p. xv).

Such it is with the portrait of Rhesa, one of the most beautiful women of her time in Fort Wayne. Her life is a study of both tragedy and resilience, depicted poignantly in this image. As the daughter of a wealthy farmer, Rhesa was petite, well-educated, and enjoyed a home with some of the finest amenities of the time. Engaged to be married to J. McNutt Smith, a telegraph operator, she had her heart broken when Smith decided to elope instead at the last minute with her sister, Margaret (1834-1918), on June 27, 1858. Rhesa was so crazed with grief that she pulled out most of her hair, forcing her to wear a wig for the rest of her life. Margaret and her family were never welcomed back into the Swinney home. Ironically, just prior to the elopement, Rhesa had posed with Smith and her sister Margaret, with Smith's arm tellingly draped around his future wife. The image was later altered and the face of another sister, Caroline, glued over that of Margaret.



Rhesa rebounded after her broken heart. She never married. Instead, showing strength of character, she became the head of her family after her father's death in 1875. She managed the farm, completed construction of a commercial building near the courthouse, and enjoyed playing hostess. On New Year's Day, she presided over large teas with place settings of fine china for more than 100 guests. She was remembered for her "mincing walk, a sort of dancing step with her small feet" as she strode through the city and was unflappable when a gust of wind once blew off her wig. Her father had left the city the grounds that would become Swinney Park, yet it was Rhesa who finalized the agreement with officials in 1893. When she died in 1911, her surviving unmarried sisters said, "The best is none too good for her." She was buried in a casket that cost $1,000, and her funeral was one of the most expensive of the period.

In many ways the daguerreotype captures the spirit of the indomitable Rhesa, beautiful and untouchable, who carved for herself an independent life outside the norms of her time.

Who Signaled Paul Revere?

Who was the "friend" who flashed the lanterns from the Old North Church tower in 1775 and immortalized in Longfellow's "Midnight Ride of Paul Revere"?

The popular poem of Longfellow creates a scene of the Revolutionary War patriot making his lonely ride alerting the New England countryside, but misses the historians' view that his mission was not to alert but to warn Samuel Adams and John Hancock that the Brits were coming to Lexington and after those two in particular. Also our man Paul was helped by other local Bostonians making it truly a collective effort.

Aware that the British Regulars would try to stop all communications throughout the area around Boston, Revere earlier had shared his concern with Colonel William Conant when the now-famed silversmith had stopped at Charlestown.

Paul Revere later wrote in correspondence to Jeremy Bleknap ca 1798, "I agreed with Colonel Conant and some other gentlemen, that if the British went out by water, we would shew two lanthorns in the North Church steeple, and if by land, one, as a signal, for we were apprehensive it would be difficult to cross the Charles River, or get over Boston neck."

Old North Church was chosen because in 1775 its steeple was the tallest building in Boston and it was located and visible in Charlestown across the water. One problem plagued the plan. The rector of the church was a vowed Loyalist to the British. However, Paul Revere had a friend by the name of Captain John Pulling who was a vestryman of Christ Church and agreed to help the American cause.

Revere also knew Robert Newman, a bright young man who was not able to find work, but had taken a job he did not like as the church caretaker. Eager to help out, he was known to be a man of few words and right for the job of signaling a secret message eager to help out.

On April 18, Revere contacted both Captain Pulling and Sexton Newman as well as another acquaintance named Thomas Bernard and told them to be ready with lanterns that night. Revere told the men to go to the church and climb up into the steeple and show two lanterns from the window on the north side of the church facing Charleston.

Newman opened the church door with his key before Captain Pulling joined him inside while Thomas Bernard stood guarding the door. It is believed that Pulling and Newman shared in the task of flashing the signal that the British troops were disembarking Boston by boat heading for Cambridge.

Were two men showing the signal lights or one? David Hackett Fischer author of Paul Revere's Ride (1995) states in the endnotes that, all three men Pulling, Newman and Bernard took part. He cites the improbable task of carrying two lanterns up and the unlikelihood of lighting them using flint and steel atop the narrow steeple ladders. Further, there was the danger of igniting a light on the ground floor with British soldiers walking the streets; making certain that the two lanterns were simultaneously displayed out the window; and that Mr. Bernard kept watch while the other two were in the tower.

Fischer says that there are no known sources surviving that explain who did what in the church tower that night. So it appears that three might have been involved and not one as Longfellow seems to imply when writing the words, "He said to his friend, 'If the British march By land or sea from the town to-night, Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch Of the North Church tower as a signal light, - One if by land, and two if by sea, And I on the opposite shore shall be...'"

Learn About the Dead Guys Our Streets Are Named After, Part 1: Harmar Street

This title is one of my favorites from the "10 Worst Slogans" published below. It's one of those things where, the more you laugh about it, the more you like it. There are so many interesting stories behind our streets. So my first Dead Guy to honor is Josiah Harmar.

Harmar Street is tucked back in the East Central neighborhood. Only 9 blocks long, it ends at the train tracks running along the river. But two centuries ago, a footpath in that area led to a ford across the Maumee, north into the great Miami village of Kekionga, now Lakeside.

Even today the river, flanked by a bike path and quiet tree-lined streets, looks peaceful. But in October of 1790 it was the site of a bloody massacre that became known as Harmar's Defeat.

Josiah Harmar was the U.S. General commissioned by President Washington to pacify the Indians in the wilds north of the Ohio River. In fall of 1790, Harmar's troops came to Kekionga. The village was hastily abandoned, and the troops proceeded to destroy cows, more than 20,000 bushels of corn, and 185 buildings.

Tracks of women and children were discovered leaving the village, so Harmar sent Col. Hardin to "pacify" the Indians once and for all. Hardin's troops were soon ambushed by the great war chief Little Turtle in an attack "planned as neatly as a rat sets a trap"* in the words of one soldier, and many members of the company were massacred. (The historical marker is on Carroll Road near Madden Road.)

Harmar's army began to leave the region in disgrace, but Hardin convinced the general to turn back and fight one more time, in order to salvage his own reputation. They would have done better to leave.

Major John Wyllys drew up a brilliant battle plan as Little Turtle's warriors returned to Kekionga. But a variety of tactical mistakes ensued after a militia member shot at a lone Indian before the order to attack, thus betraying their position. Wyllys, unsupported by neither cavalry nor militia, was then forced into an immediate frontal assault across the Maumee with his regulars. He was one of the first men to die in the river, which was soon choked with the bodies of men and horses.

It was a disaster. The army slunk back to Fort Washington in Cincinnati, looking back fearfully over their shoulders. By the end of the campaign, 183 U.S. troops were dead and 31 were wounded. Little Turtle, LeGris and Bluejacket paraded the American scalps in the streets of Detroit, and the fighting and atrocities in the region escalated until the conquest under General Anthony Wayne.

The photograph above shows Harmar's Ford in the Maumee from the Tecumseh Street Bridge; it is roughly marked by the bare stretch of bank. Fragments of flintlocks and bayonets have been found at this site and others associated with Harmar's Defeat, and are part of the collection of the History Center.

*Griswold, A Pictorial History of Fort Wayne Indiana, 1917.