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EARLY HISTORY OF FORT WAYNE.BT THE KDJTDTl.In resuming the Early History of fr ort H ayne, we confess to an embarrassment, in adopting n system or plan on which In present those matters occurring within the time which we passed ore?last week, commencing in 1823, and running up to. 1630, and in some matters as lalo as 16335 but shall do the best wo can under, the circumstances.The Masonic History is presented on the out-sMtfoftiiis paper, as having begun in'May 1823; but in' that we omitted to stale, .first—that myno Lodge No. 25, V. A. M-, was organized -witfctti the pickets of the Fort in a ramn then occupied by General John Tipton, where they continued to hold it *for some time, and then it was held in ft room of the old Washington Ilall, on the SouUi West comer of Columbia and Barr streets; after which we have no information in ^ what place it met, till the society got into the I * Lodge Room or the Hall.. The other omission, was”in not staling the reason of the Lodge hav-1 ^ ing ceased to work at the period when it is stated | that it sold its Hall and lot This may be stated ^ in few words: The Anti-Mamnic feeling arising - out of the abduction of Morgan, at Batavia, few f ‘fork—ft thing which was seized upon bypoliti-. ^ cal demagogues; and, strange as it may seem at i ] this day—but nevertheless true—was made to j form the issue on which that infamous class alluded to (lt;£ein«0O'irKe*)5iezod,and by it influenced the minds of the people ; and which, for a term ol years, prostrated the success of that ancient and;Teiy honorable and praiswortliy society in the United Stales; white in Cuumia and in other place; beyond the United States, where it could not be dragged into politics, the good work w as not retarded.’ In alluding to the original plat of Fort 11 ayne, laid out in 1824, we forgot, last week, to state that it was recorded, as were many other matters, requiring such perpetuation, in the county -of-Randolph, from which it and others were subsequently transferred, af may be seen by reference to tho books in the Recorder’s oflice, of now Allen county. By deed of Barr and McCor klc—Proprietors of the town, it appears that they donated four rods square,next the north-west ' comer of the Original Plat of tho town, for a church and burying ground,to be occupied by no particular denomination, but free to all, except somiueh as might tie necessary on which to build any church that might first he organized here ajut build an edifice thereon. Also a lot of the same size, immediately East, nntl adjoining the above donation, for n Seminary of learning’ All natural traces of these donations having been long since removed, we lake pleasure in Stating for the benefit of the curious, that the grave yard and church-lot occupied Lhe rear parts, ns far as1 tho hank ovcrliangiog the river linltinn, of hits 074 and 575, while the sclioo1-housc-lot laid ex-- acUy behind DTfi. ill that part of the city laid off bv Judge llanna, in about 1MI1, I wing after he had bought the interest of Harr and McPorklc. in all of Fort IVayne, a purchase embracing the last they owned herein. It may bo more delinitc to state, tluil all Ibis donated proi mrly stood exactly ll'ost of the now county jail-lot on Calhoun, North of Water street. It may he further proper to explain that the sclmoMiouso-lot, ■' ehurch-ktt and grave yard luring become no longer used for the purposes for which the ground was given, it reverted back to Samuel llanna os the assignee of the donors. The remains of the many dead, such ns could he found those not having loving and aide friends sur-virig, were removed at public expense, and those whose living friends bestowed thought ami exhibited affection, id private expense, to the new cemetery, South-West of town, 18!W, or 1830. Ill this old school-house, numy of thofc then young, but now jblsI middle life, wlilt;i yet live here, and many dead, and others absent, had their early training for useinliiess; and many there experienced those joys only to ho once enjoyed in a lifetime; while, perhaps, nearly every toacber who there dieipiiiii-d the youthful mind, has gone to his final account, and soon here tc be on Li rely forgotten. It is u Uictnc oil which we would dwell—hut, to our purpose, it if foreign to muse here, aii.l we leave it nilli a sigh contributed to those who, from thirty five tc twenty five years since, within the hallo wee walls of that old school-house, lived and learned ■ and loved in unalloyed earthly bliss.This old Sehnol-house was built of brick i( about 1835, and was then quite largo enough fo; all needed purposes, but would now be consider cd very small 11 was only one story in licigl th and served fur many yea rs,uot only as a school house, but, iw the place for religious worship town meeting?, masonic installations, politico speeches, c. Perhaps John I’. Pudges, iiov living liens, was the first teacher in the old house wIkj had it plastered at his own expense in th winter of 1820 and ’27, but who succeeded liiu we arc not able now to ascertain, except it be tka Jesse A. Aughinbauglt,afl»:r having kept a whil the County Seminary in the Masonic Hall, tough at the old School-house, _r.tr least as early as 183: and afterward*. 11 any Cooper, Esq. earl; taught in the old couuLy jail, a rude structure n logs on the S. W. corner of the public sqnare-cxactly where the ltirnirder’s office now StmnLs-aml which jail remained there mi oy e-sore to tit public, till about 1847.Phoh-vtb fVitnv.Prior to 1838, the Associate Judges of Ihcilif
Newspaper Details
Fort Wayne Weekly Times
Fort Wayne, Indiana, US
Thu, Dec 23, 1858
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Dan B.
USA 21 Sep 2024
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