'Here will arise a town of great importance': The United States government, federal agents, and frontier settlers at Fort Wayne, Indiana

This study outlines an important process of expansion in the early frontier in present-day northeastern Indiana, showing the mutual reliance between the settlers and their federal government. Between the years 1794 and 1850, these two parties were neither completely dependent on the other, yet never independent. Prior to 1850 Fort Wayne was as much a frontier for the young United States republic as it was for the westward-moving pioneers, creating a federal frontier for American policy makers and citizens alike. The federal frontier was complex: it was both a place and a process in which reciprocal actions and interactions occurred---where settlers and the federal government sought to achieve their separate goals. Working together in mutual reliance, they not only settled this early western region but also tested the process of expansion for the young republic.;The first chapter of this study explores the region's significance to the French and British empires and their failed attempts to establish their own agendas in the New World. Chapter two analyzes the military subjugation and the beginnings of a permanent federal presence in the Old Northwest with which the westward-moving Americans interacted. The various Indian programs and their agencies at Fort Wayne are covered in chapters three and four as well as the nation's treaty negotiations with the area's native inhabitants. These two chapters analyze how personalities on the federal frontier influenced the implementation of government policies and the struggle that occurred between national officials and settlers over the economic opportunities the federal agencies provided. Chapter five focuses on Fort Wayne's federal land office and the mutual reliance that emerged in settling the region. The symbolic importance of the federal government's land grants for Indiana's Wabash and Erie Canal and the manner in which Fort Wayne citizens celebrated this national transportation route are discussed in chapter six. Finally, the conclusion outlines the legacy of early Fort Wayne's ties to the national government.