The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-08-25

WAYNE was long-headed according TO the
knowledge current in his day, and other sa-
gacious men approved his Judgment for
more than a generation after. In 1919 one
Cant. James Riley. a surveyor Of some note
visited Fort Wayne. and his enthusiastic
predictions for what he called 1.-THE future
emporium Of Indiana" have been recorded.
BY Wayne's occupancy of the spot. he
said, 1.-THE communication between Lake
Erie and the Ohio. through the channels
of the Maumee and the Wabash, was cut
off or completely commanded ana
here viii arise a town OF great Importance.
which must become a depot of immense
trade. So soon as the land shall be
surveyed and offered for sale inhabitants
will pour in from all quarters 70 this fu-
ture t-horoughfare between the East and
the Mississippi river" This foreseeiag sur
veyOr. entcrprising as well as prophetic
further wen for his name a place in history
by suggesting the one thing important and
needful, a short canal, which might very
easily De cut. six miles long, uniting the
Wabash TO the st. Mary's." Imbued with
this idea he returned a year later. sur
veyed the portage, and urged his arguments
upon the United States Surveyor General
Edward Tiffin. reafiirming that Fort Wayne
combined more natural advantages TO
build up and support a town Of Importance
as a place Of deposit and trade and a thor
oughfare than any point he had seen in the
Western country" This seems 10 have
been the inception of the great Wabash and
Erie canal. Riley's idea was pushed in
Congress. and hat body, during it's session
OF 1871 took steps toward its fulhllment
by authorizing the State of Indiana to sur
vey and mark through the lands Of the
United States the route of a cana by which
TO connect the navigation of the rivers Wa
bash anc Miami (Maumee) and to Lake
Erie"
PROMISE THAT FAILED.
So promising was the project that it grew
OF it's own momentum, expanding into a
grander scheme, and in 1927 another act Of
much larger scope not only gave authority,
but encouraged Indiana TO undertake the
work by donating large tracts of land. The
canal now was to extend down the Wabash
as far as the Tippecanoe river, and down
the Maumee to the rapids OF that stream.
The Importance 10 the nation at large that
was attached to this proposed waterway
Is shown by the provision that 1.-The said
canal, when completed. shall be, and for
ever remain, a public highway for the use
OF the government OF the United States,
free from any toll or other charges what
ever. for any property Of the United States
or persons in their service, passing through
the same" Indiana acceded to the propo-
sition with enthusiasm; in due time ground
was jubilantly broke at Fort Wayne and
for a decade or more the work of construc-
ton went industriously on During the
comparatively brief term of it's existence
1t was the life and hope of the Wabash
valley, and if Madison on the Ohio was one
gateway 10 the State" the city that stood
where the rivers ov%erlapped was none the
less another. The freight boat and the
packet succeeding to the pirogue and the
canoe brought multiplied currents of life
that passed through and built up Fort
Wayne, and the early dreams of those who
foresaw here a metropolis of the first order
babe fair TO be fulfilled.
To appreciate fully that promise and the
reasons for it's nonfulhllment one must
consider the conditions that made cities
prior TO the middle OF the century just
past, and the enormous revolution in social
development caused by the most radical of
factors, the steam locomotive. Before the
advent Of the latter and its proved practi-
cabiIity transportation by water, particu-
4dlly III oil ulQCNGlODGQ COuIlINs WAS 50
immeasureably easier than by land that
n~avigable rivers were of the first impor-
lance. In judging of the future of a new
territory the streams that afforded ingress
and egress were taken into account more.
perhaps. than any other one thing. and the
value of these streams were in direct ratio
to their touch with the various markets Of
the country; this narrow divide command
ing an almost Uninterrupted waterway from
New York to New Orleans gave an i'm
mense advantage to the city located there,
and under the old order of things Fort
Wayne was. logically. predestined to high
rank among the cities of the land.
n THRIVING city.
The implication is not, by any means,
that Fort Wayne is a relic of the past or
that she has fallen behind in the race.
She has thrived well under the new condi-
tions, and, as said in the beginning of this
article. is to-day the third largest city in
Indiana. but with the passing OF the old
order her peculiar advantage was rendered
null and void. The only argument, il there
be an argument, is a speculative one as TO
what the Summit City" would have been.
had the worlds inland continued
TO follow the waterways.
A word OF post-mortem history touching
the doughty veteran who wrested this
spot from the red man and established his
name here for future time may not be
amiss. Wayne. as may be learned from
any STANDARD biography of him, died where
Erie, Pa. is now located, not long after
his conquest Of the Northwestern tribes.
There he lay buried for thirteen years.
when his son removed the remains to the
old home place in Chester county, Pennsyl-
vania- Further particulars are not, 1 be-
heye. given in any OF the lives but some
twenty-five Yeas ago a fugitive article
ahoat In the press added some grue-
some details to the established ac-
count According to this the son came
over the mountains on his sepulchral
errand in a small sulky. When his
fathers body was disinterred it was found
to be in an excellent state of preservation.
To transport is thus on the sulky was
impossible. and a DR.. John c. Wallace. one
of Wayne's old companions-in-arms, over
came the difficulty by boiling the body,
thus separating the flesh from the bones.
The flesh was returned to the original
grave and the bones. strapped in a box
10 the sulky. were taken home and re-
buried Thus the dust of the hero of
Stony Point has the anomalous distinction
OF occupying two graves. Over the bones
a monument was erected. The first grave
was forgotten for many years. when some