Fort Wayne — The Record
The March 1913 flood at the Wells Street Bridge, Fort Wayne, a period photograph from a contemporary album
Fort Wayne, IndianaSunday, November 1, 2026history.projectmoosed.com

Fort Wayne, on the record.

The city from Kekionga to the present council chamber, its government, its businesses, its people and its events, with the famous local stories checked against the newspapers, treaties, orderly books and gauge records that survive, and graded for what the evidence actually supports.

Cover photograph: the Great Flood at the Wells Street Bridge, 25 March 1913, a period photograph, public domain, via Allen INGenWeb. Only public-domain and freely licensed photographs are published on this page; the rights ledger is at the foot of the page.

16
Claim files graded below
232
Years since the fort's dedication, 1794–2026
46
Mayoral administrations since 1840
3
Rivers · one confluence
§ 01

How this record grades

Same discipline as the other graded-evidence sites, but the sources here are treaties, orderly books, and a newspaper run that starts in 1833.

Every claim on this page gets a verdict stamp. A story repeated for a century still earns only what its earliest surviving record supports, and where two records disagree, the page says so instead of picking the tidier number.

Proven

A contemporaneous primary record survives and can be quoted, a treaty text, an 1845 obituary, a dated photograph.

Documented

No single primary text in hand, but multiple record-based sources agree on the substance.

Unproven

No contemporaneous evidence found. The story may be old and beloved; the paper trail is not there.

Misidentified

A real event, person or place, with the wrong date, town, fuel, or inventor attached to it.

Fabricated

Invented, fictional, or a confessed hoax, later repeated as fact.

Sources conflict

Two credible records give different numbers. The page prints both and names the gauge, the estimate, and the date of each.

The desk boundary: Fort Wayne before 1923 can largely be graded from a desk, the Internet Archive, the Library of Congress, Indiana Memory and library newspaper databases hold the early record. From 1923 to 2000, grading usually means microfilm at the Allen County Public Library or the History Center archives in person. Grades that rest on the later period are marked provisional where that matters.
§ 02

The Spine · 1690s to today

Three rivers, a six-mile portage, and everything that followed from it.

The St. Joseph and St. Marys meet here to form the Maumee, and a short portage west reaches the Wabash system, Lake Erie on one side, the Mississippi and the Gulf on the other. Little Turtle, speaking at Greenville in 1795, called this place “that glorious gate… through which all the good words of our chiefs had to pass from north to south and from east to west.” Every era below is a consequence of that geography. (The Myaamia Center publishes four different primary versions of that speech and discusses why they differ, the citation standard this record follows.)

19th-century engraving of Mihšihkinaahkwa, Little Turtle, chief of the Miami
Little Turtle (Mihšihkinaahkwa), from a 19th-century engraving after the portrait painted from life. Public domain. His birth year is given as both c.1747 and c.1752, graded UNPROVEN either way.

Kekionga was here first

Long before any fort bore an American name, Kekionga (Myaamia: kiihkayonki) stood at the confluence, capital of the Miami, a cluster of villages rather than a single town. A 1744 census counted roughly 40 Frenchmen and 1,000 Miamians; by the 1790s refugee Delaware and Shawnee villages stood alongside. France planted Fort Miami here (c.1697/1706–1721, then Fort St. Philippe), Britain took the post in 1760, and the Miami held it again after Pontiac's Rebellion in 1763.

Its importance is proven by behaviour: three empires and then three American armies all marched on this one river junction. What “Kekionga” means is another matter, see Claim File 04.

Sources: 1744 census as cited in standard summaries; Henry Hay's 1789–90 Kekionga diary; Historical Marker Database, Kekionga marker, hmdb.org

Era I · The gate and the armies, 1790–1812

OCT 1790

Harmar's Defeat

Gen. Josiah Harmar's 1,453-man expedition against Kekionga is mauled in detachments by Little Turtle's forces, 19–22 October, with 200+ American casualties. The disaster is documented by a printed primary record: the Proceedings of a Court of Enquiry… into Harmar's conduct, Philadelphia, 1791.

4 NOV 1791

St. Clair's Defeat · not here

Near modern Fort Recovery, Ohio, not at Fort Wayne, though the two are often conflated locally. A roughly 1,000-strong Northwestern Confederacy under Little Turtle, Blue Jacket and Buckongahelas destroys St. Clair's army: the worst defeat the U.S. Army ever suffered at Native hands. Congress investigates, its first investigation of the executive branch.

20 AUG 1794

Fallen Timbers

Anthony Wayne's Legion of the United States defeats the Confederacy on the Maumee near present-day Toledo. Wayne's official reports are the record.

22 OCT 1794

Fort Wayne is dedicated

Wayne reaches Kekionga in mid-September, picks a site across the Maumee from the village, and the fort is finished by about 17 October. On 22 October 1794 Col. Jean François Hamtramck dedicates and names Fort Wayne, fifteen cannon rounds for fifteen states, on the fourth anniversary of Harmar's Defeat. The city keeps 22 October 1794 as its official founding date.

Source: fort history and marker transcription, hmdb.org

3 AUG 1795

Treaty of Greenville

Twelve tribes cede most of Ohio and key tracts including the Fort Wayne portage (7 Stat. 49). Note for the file: Visit Fort Wayne's history page dates the treaty “August 10, 1795.” The treaty text says 3 August, a small, checkable error in a secondary source, and exactly the kind this record exists to catch.

Source: treaty text, U.S. Statutes at Large, via Miami University, mc.miamioh.edu

14 JULY 1812

Little Turtle dies

The Miami leader dies at the home of his son-in-law William Wells near Fort Wayne and is buried with U.S. military honours in ancestral ground near Spy Run. What workmen found on Lawton Place a century later is Claim File 06.

5–12 SEPT 1812

The Siege of Fort Wayne

Some 500 Potawatomi and Miami under Winamac and Five Medals besiege a garrison of about 100. Capt. James Rhea is incapacitated by drink; Lieutenants Ostrander and Curtis command until William Henry Harrison relieves the fort on 12 September. Only two soldiers are killed. The garrison's own orderly book survives and is transcribed, with the honest caveat, on Ball State's exhibit page, that the warrior count comes from U.S. sources and “there is no way to verify this with surviving Native American sources.”

Source: Fort Wayne Garrison Orderly Book, 1812, via Ball State's Forts of Fort Wayne, digitalresearch.bsu.edu

The treaty chief and the house the treaties built

Jean Baptiste de Richardville (Pinšiwa, 1761 – 13 Aug 1841), nephew of Little Turtle's generation through his mother Tacumwah, sister of Pacanne, signed treaties from Greenville in 1795 through 1840 and accumulated 28,320 acres and $31,800 in grants along the way. In 1827 he built the house at 5705 Bluffton Road with $600 of federal treaty money and about $1,600 of his own: the first Greek Revival house in northeast Indiana, a National Historic Landmark since 2012.

The History Center calls him the richest man in Indiana at his death. The reputation is documented; the viral “$23 million in today's money” figure is not, see Claim File 14.

Source: The History Center, Richardville House, fwhistorycenter.org (read in full for this record)

The Chief Richardville House, a two-story Greek Revival brick house at 5705 Bluffton Road, Fort Wayne
The Richardville House (1827), 5705 Bluffton Rd. Photo via Wikimedia Commons. Whether it is “the only extant treaty house in the nation” is graded in Claim File 14.

Era II · Treaties, removal, and a town, 1809–1846

1809–1840

The cession cascade

Treaty of Fort Wayne (1809); St. Mary's (1818, creating the Big Miami Reserve); Mississinewas (1826, canal right-of-way); Forks of the Wabash (1838, 1840). Hundreds of the treaty scans are free in the National Archives Catalog.

1819–1840

Garrison out, town in

The Army withdraws in 1819; a federal land office follows. The town is platted in 1823, Allen County is organized in 1824, Fort Wayne incorporates as a town in 1829 (population ~300) and as a city on 22 February 1840 (population over 2,000). First mayor: George W. Wood, see § 04, Government.

6 JULY 1833

The newspaper record begins

Tigar & Noel found the Sentinel, the start of the continuous local newspaper run against which most claims on this page are graded. The Daily News follows in 1874; merged papers become the News-Sentinel (1918) and the Journal Gazette (1899 lineage), the latter still publishing.

18 MAR 1845

Johnny Appleseed dies here

John Chapman dies in Fort Wayne, the best-proven famous death in the city's record, and the least-proven famous grave. Full file: Claim 01.

6–7 OCT 1846

The Miami Removal

After the 1840 treaty's five-year deadline and six years of resistance, the Richardville, Godfroy, Meshingomesia, Slocum and LaFontaine families held exemptions, the Army and its contractors load hundreds of Myaamia onto canal boats at Peru (6 Oct) and at Fort Wayne/Kiihkayonki (7 Oct). Five boats to Cincinnati, a steamboat to Kansas; the party reaches Sugar Creek on 5 November 1846, and several die on the way. The canal that made Fort Wayne carried its founders away.

Source: Myaamia Center teaching history, teachmyaamiahistory.org

Era III · Canal and rail, 1832–1880s

22 FEB 1832

Canal groundbreaking

Ground breaks at Fort Wayne for the Wabash & Erie Canal, at Fort Wayne because it is the highest point on the route, the summit between the Maumee and the Wabash. That summit is the documented root of the “Summit City” nickname (Claim File 02).

3–4 JULY 1835

First boats

The canal boat Indiana reaches Huntington: the Fort Wayne–Huntington stretch is the first Indiana section in traffic.

4 JULY 1843

Grand opening

Through navigation, Toledo to Lafayette by way of Fort Wayne, celebrated at the Swinney homestead with Lewis Cass speaking. At its full 1853 length to Evansville the canal runs 468 miles, the longest in North America. It is abandoned in 1874, sold in 1877; the Nickel Plate takes the Fort Wayne roadbed in 1881 and the last boat is seen in 1882.

31 OCT–1 NOV 1854

The railroad era opens

The Ohio & Indiana completes its line to Fort Wayne (excursion 15 November). The Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago consolidates in 1856 and runs through to Chicago by 1858–59. In 1857 the railroad picks Fort Wayne for its construction and repair shops on Samuel Hanna's donated land, the Pennsy Shops, employing some 3,950 by 1913, building locomotives until after the First World War and rebuilding them until 1933. Nickname earned on the shop floor: “Altoona of the West.”

Sources: National Register nomination, Baker Street Station, npgallery.nps.gov; ACGSI railroad history

Era IV · The factory city, 1881–1983

1881–1899

Jenney Electric becomes General Electric

James A. Jenney arrives in 1881 with his arc lamp and dynamo; Jenney lights the New Orleans World's Fair in 1884; Thomson-Houston buys control in 1888; James J. Wood arrives in 1890; GE absorbs the works in January 1899. At its late-1940s peak, GE employs roughly 40% of the city's workforce. The lineage is documented; the exact corporate date is disputed between 1892, 1898 and 1899 in the sources, the record grades the lineage, not a single date.

2 JUNE 1883

Baseball under lights

Seventeen Jenney arc lamps light League Park for Quincy vs. Methodist College (Quincy wins 19–11 before ~2,000). A famous first that isn't, Claim File 13. Three years earlier and eighteen days later, on 4 May 1871, the Fort Wayne Kekiongas had already played the first game of the first professional league, beating Cleveland 2–0, “first” only because Boston–Washington was rained out the day before.

5 SEPT 1885

Bowser sells his first pump

S. F. Bowser sells a self-measuring pump to a Fort Wayne grocer, for kerosene, not gasoline (Claim File 11). With Wayne Pump and Tokheim, Fort Wayne becomes a national centre of fuel-pump making.

1911

Refrigerators and magnet wire

GE begins Fort Wayne manufacture of the French Audiffren home refrigerator, first unit sold 1911 at about $1,000 (Claim File 10). The same year, ex-GE chemist George Jacobs founds Dudlo, and Fort Wayne becomes the world's leading magnet-wire producer: the factual root of “Magnet Wire Capital of the World.”

23–27 MAR 1913

The Great Flood

4.75 inches of rain fall on 23–25 March. The Maumee goes from 6.7 ft on Easter Sunday to 19.6 ft the next morning and crests at 26.1 ft at 11 p.m. on 26 March, eleven feet above flood stage. The Lakeside dike breaks in four places; the power plant floods and the city goes dark. 5,500 homes and businesses damaged, ~15,000 people homeless, ~$4.8 million in damage, relief given to 11,187. The death count is Claim File 03.

Source: Jarosh's record-by-record reconstruction for the News-Sentinel, built from three 1913 dailies plus birth, death, funeral, cemetery, census and directory records, egen.fortwayne.com (read in full for this record)

1923–1983

International Harvester's sixty years

Construction starts 1922 on East Pontiac/Bueter; truck production runs 1923 to the end. The plant builds 1,527,299 trucks, including 532,674 Scouts (Nov 1960–Oct 1980), and peaks at 10,600 employees in early 1979. The closure is announced on the Journal Gazette's front page on 28 September 1982, the city's $31 million retention package loses to Springfield, Ohio, and the last truck rolls out 15 July 1983.

Source: ACGSI, with newspaper citations, acgsi.org

SEPT 1972

The home video game, productised here

Magnavox releases the Odyssey, the first commercial home video-game console. It was invented in New Hampshire; Fort Wayne's role was the decision and the engineering that made it a product (Claim File 12).

Two floods, one argument about numbers

The 1913 flood and the 1982 flood fight are the city's two defining emergencies, and both turn on figures that sources state differently. In 1913 the argument is a death count: six drownings, or seven flood deaths counting the rescuer who collapsed. In 1982 it is the crest itself: the National Weather Service series and the History Center's own artifact label disagree by a full foot.

This record prints both numbers every time, with the gauge or the estimate named. The full workings are Claim Files 03 and 15, and the crest chart in § 03.

Era V · The city that saved itself, and after, 1982–today

12–19 MAR 1982

The flood fight

A record winter's snowmelt (81.2 inches of snow, the most since 1911) plus rain on frozen ground. The Nebraska dike breaks and ~3,000 are evacuated there alone; the Pemberton dike is saved, and with it Lakeside. Sandbagging centres on Memorial Coliseum; President Reagan joins the line on 16 March. About 9,000 evacuated, ~2,000 buildings damaged, no deaths in most accounts. The city takes the All-America City award in 1983 largely for the fight, and builds the flood-control system and Headwaters Park (dedicated 1993) on the ground it defended.

Source: University of Delaware Disaster Research Center Working Paper #73, The Fort Wayne Flood: A Case Study (Oct 1984), udspace.udel.edu

1993

Headwaters Park

The flood-control project remakes the old “Thumb” between the rivers as Headwaters Park, the city's festival ground, on the land where Kekionga's portage began.

23 APR 2024

A mayor chosen by caucus

Tom Henry, the longest-serving mayor in city history, dies in office on 28 March 2024 in his fifth term. Deputy Mayor Karl Bandemer acts for 26 days; on 23 April a Democratic caucus seats council member Sharon Tucker as the 37th person, and 46th administration, to hold the office. The full roster is § 04.

§ 03

The Claims Ledger

Sixteen famous Fort Wayne stories, each checked against the earliest record that survives.

Filter by verdict. A file can carry more than one grade, a true death date above an unproven grave, and each part is graded separately, because that is how the evidence actually falls.

Show:
FILE 01 · PEOPLEProven

“Johnny Appleseed died in Fort Wayne and lies under the marker in Johnny Appleseed Park.”

ProvenThe death, Fort Wayne, 18 March 1845. The Fort Wayne Sentinel of 22 March 1845 (p.2) records John Chapman's death “on the same day” as Thomas McJanet's; the Times and Peoples Press of the same date fixes McJanet to the 18th, closing the ambiguity (Fortriede, ACPL, 1978). Estate papers, 42 probate documents, and the 1848–49 tax sales of his land corroborate a local 1845 death.
DocumentedBurial in David Archer's family burying ground by the feeder canal (Dawson, 1871; an 1858 interview; John H. Archer's 1900 letter).
UnprovenThe exact grave under today's marker. Archer's own 1900 letter: the headboards had rotted and “I do not think that any person could, with any degree of certainty, come within fifty feet of locating the grave.” The marker, and the 1934 Memorial Commission vote that kept its site, ratify a tradition, not a located grave. The rival Canterbury Green stone marks the cabin where he died, not a burial.
MisidentifiedThe rival dates: 11 March 1845 (Dawson's recollection, 1871), 1843 (Griswold, 1917), summer 1847 (Harper's, 1871). The tin-pot hat likewise appears in no contemporaneous source.

Primary: Fort Wayne Sentinel, 22 Mar 1845, p.2, full transcription at ACGSI: acgsi.org (read in full for this record)

FILE 02 · NAMEDocumented

“Fort Wayne is the Summit City because the canal crested here.”

DocumentedThe explanation. ARCH: groundbreaking was at Fort Wayne “due to it being the highest point on the canal route and thus giving the town its nickname.” History Center historian Tom Castaldi: by 1843 the canal ran Lafayette–Toledo “with Fort Wayne resting on the highest elevation between the two. Eventually, it earned Fort Wayne the name of The Summit City.” The engineering underneath it, Fort Wayne sits on the canal's summit level, the Maumee–Wabash divide, fits the lock geography.
UnprovenThe coinage. No source found names a coiner, a date, or a single printed use from the 1840s. “The nickname dates from 1843” is asserted everywhere and documented nowhere, an open file (see Open Questions).

Sources: ARCH Heritage Trail, archfw.org; History Center Notes & Queries, historycenterfw.blogspot.com

FILE 03 · FLOOD 1913Documented

“The 1913 flood killed seven people in Fort Wayne.” · “No, six.”

DocumentedBoth, once the count is defined. Jarosh's News-Sentinel reconstruction, three 1913 dailies checked against birth, death, funeral-home, cemetery, census and directory records, names seven: Herbert Snow, drowned from a rescue boat at the Main Street bridge; four Allen County Orphan's Home girls (Ardah Woods, Alice Mannen, Esther Kramer, Kittie Wise), drowned when their evacuation boat capsized; William Singer, not quite four, in swollen Spy Run Creek on 29 March; and rescuer Peter G. Monnock, who collapsed, heart failure attributed to overexposure and overwork. That is six drownings + one flood-attributed collapse = seven flood deaths. Summaries saying “six” are counting drownings.
FabricatedAny larger toll applied to Fort Wayne itself. The ~700 deaths of 1913 belong to the multi-state flood, not this city.

Primary reconstruction: Jarosh, News-Sentinel, egen.fortwayne.com (read in full for this record)

FILE 04 · KEKIONGADocumented

“Kekionga was a great capital · and its name means ‘blackberry patch.’”

DocumentedThe scale, with a definition attached: a cluster of villages, Miami, plus refugee Delaware and Shawnee by the 1790s, not one town. The 1744 census (~1,000 Miamians) and period descriptions of cornfields “as far as the eye can see” support “the largest Miami settlement, and the largest village of its kind in present-day Indiana.” Precise one-date populations in the thousands need a named census.
UnprovenThe etymology. The state marker itself hedges, “Tradition holds that Kekionga means ‘the blackberry patch’”, following J. P. Dunn, who already doubted it. Linguist Michael McCafferty's exhaustive 2008 examination dismissed Dunn's explanation and several others. Print it as tradition, not translation.

Sources: Kekionga marker, hmdb.org; McCafferty, Native American Place Names of Indiana (2008), via the Kekionga summary

FILE 05 · NAMEUnproven

“Anthony Wayne got ‘Mad Anthony’ from a jailed spy · or from Stony Point.”

DocumentedThe nickname itself, universally attached to Wayne in his lifetime's aftermath; his earlier nickname was “Dandy.”
UnprovenEvery origin story. The Jemmy-the-Rover tale, Wayne's spy, jailed in 1781, refused release, threatened with 29 lashes, muttering “Anthony is mad”, reaches print through Glenn Tucker's 20th-century biography, with details admittedly varying between tellings. Washington Irving's rival crediting of Stony Point daring (1779) is likewise a later literary attribution. No contemporaneous document for either was found.

Sources: American Battlefield Trust, battlefields.org; PA Center for the Book, pabook.libraries.psu.edu

FILE 06 · PEOPLEDocumented

“Little Turtle's grave was found on Lawton Place in 1912 · Washington's sword proved it.”

DocumentedA strong circumstantial identification, reported at the time. On 4 July 1912 the Lochner brothers, digging a cellar at 634 Lawton Place, uncovered Miami burials in the known burial ground by William Wells's farm. J. M. Stouder's account (Journal-Gazette, 4 Aug 1912; reprinted in the Indiana Magazine of History) lists eight silver bracelets, three silver medals, 23 one-inch silver crosses, and “one sword, with silver hilt, wrapped with gold braid, which we are certain is that presented to the chief by General George Washington.” The skull went to the Smithsonian. The goods match documented gifts, but the identification is an inference over one of 25+ burials on the site, and the 1912 headline's “beyond all doubt” overstates it.
UnprovenHis birth year, c.1747 in some sources, c.1752 in others. His death date, 14 July 1812, is consistent everywhere.

Primary account: Indiana Magazine of History, scholarworks.iu.edu; memorial plot: acgsi.org

FILE 07 · GHOSTSFabricated

“The Woman in White haunted the Main Street bridge in 1883.”

ProvenThe sightings, as newspaper events. The Fort Wayne Gazette ran them on 27, 28 and 29 August 1883 (p.7), naming patrolmen Sheridan, Singleton, Lapp and Franke as witnesses, while disclaiming belief: “The GAZETTE is not a believer in the supernatural…”
FabricatedThe ghost, by the story's own later telling. Fort Wayne Magazine's history (Oct 2015) recounts a confession: two cousins projected the figure onto the bridge with a magic lantern from a West Central house and doused the lamp to make her vanish. FortWayne.com's Answers column records that readers debunked the Lady in White on that basis.
UnprovenThe lantern mechanics, the magazine itself asks whether a candle-era lantern could project that clearly at that distance. Hoax: settled. Apparatus: not quite.

Primary: Fort Wayne Gazette, 27–29 Aug 1883, transcripts at acgsi.org; debunk: fortwayne.com

FILE 08 · GHOSTSUnproven

“The Embassy Theatre's ghost is stage manager Bud Berger.”

DocumentedThe man. Berger was the Embassy's stage manager from 1936 until his death in 1965, and lived at the theatre (125 W. Jefferson, opened 1928), per the Embassy's executive director.
UnprovenThe ghost. Folding seats during organ practice, dream-warnings before burst pipes, all staff anecdotes retailed from the 1970s onward, no contemporaneous record, and the theatre “will neither confirm nor deny.” Watch the decay in retelling: one listicle moves his death to “the 1950s” and renames him “Bud Burger.”

Source: Visit Fort Wayne, with the Embassy's executive director, visitfortwayne.com

FILE 09 · WARFabricated

“Fort Wayne was seventh on Hitler's bombing list.”

FabricatedAs history. Fort Wayne Is Seventh on Hitler's List is the title of Michael Martone's 1990 book, catalogued as fiction; Martone has said he set out to build a Midwestern mythology. A 2016 Michigan Quarterly Review investigation searched the History Center's Fort Wayne Civil Defense Council Records (1939–1947): curator Walter Font is “familiar with the legend, though he's never seen any written record,” and historian John Beatty: “It's become quite a myth… I've never seen any bombing list.”
DocumentedThe substrate that makes the myth plausible: wartime production at Harvester, GE, Magnavox, Tokheim and Rea, and the Camp Scott POW camp. Tell that story as itself, it needs no list.

Source: Michigan Quarterly Review investigation (2016), sites.lsa.umich.edu

FILE 10 · INDUSTRYMisidentified

“Fort Wayne invented the refrigerator, in 1913.”

MisidentifiedWrong inventor, wrong year, right factory. The first GE home refrigerators (sold 1911, ~$1,000) were built in Fort Wayne from the patented design of French Cistercian physicist Abbé Marcel Audiffren (French patent 1894; U.S. patents 1895/1908). GE manufactured Audiffren machines here 1911–1928; the Monitor-Top of 1927 made the home refrigerator common. Fort Wayne's true claim is the first American manufacture of a practical domestic electric refrigerator, and the “1913” in city-summary lists looks like a rounding of the 1911–13 production start.

Sources: Assembly Magazine, GE appliance centenary, assemblymag.com; GE photo record, Google Arts & Culture

FILE 11 · INDUSTRYMisidentified

“Bowser invented the gasoline pump in 1885.”

MisidentifiedWrong fuel. The pump S. F. Bowser sold on 5 September 1885 dispensed kerosene; his patent is 1887; the self-measuring gasoline storage pump is 1905, the era when a Bowser employee's coinage “filling station” attaches.
DocumentedThe corrected claim is stronger than the legend: Bowser, Wayne Pump and Tokheim made Fort Wayne the place that industrialised measured fuel dispensing.

Sources: Indiana Landmarks, indianalandmarks.org; ACGSI, acgsi.org

FILE 12 · INDUSTRYMisidentified

“The Magnavox Odyssey was invented in Fort Wayne.”

MisidentifiedWrong place of invention. Ralph Baer conceived the “Brown Box” at Sanders Associates in New Hampshire in 1966–67. Fort Wayne enters with Baer's demonstration to Magnavox management at its Fort Wayne headquarters, the March 1971 licensing agreement, and Fort Wayne engineers converting the Brown Box into the production Odyssey, released September 1972. A federal judge in 1977 called Baer's patent “the pioneering patent of the video-game art.”
DocumentedFort Wayne's real claim: the decision and the product engineering that made the first home console commercial. One flag before anyone prints a demo date: Indianapolis Monthly dates the Fort Wayne demonstration to 17 July 1969; Baer's own chronology as republished says 1970. Unresolved, see Open Questions.

Sources: Indianapolis Monthly, indianapolismonthly.com; Baer chronology, pong-story.com

FILE 13 · SPORTMisidentified

“Fort Wayne hosted the first night baseball game, in 1883.”

DocumentedThe game. On 2 June 1883 (Visit Fort Wayne's blog says 3 June, flagged), Jenney Electric lit League Park with 17 arc lamps of 4,000 candlepower for Quincy vs. Methodist College, Quincy winning 19–11 before ~2,000. The Gazette, the Fort Wayne News and Sporting Life all panned the light. The Fort Wayne night game scheduled first, vs. Indianapolis, 29–30 May, was rained out and never played as billed.
MisidentifiedThe superlative. An amateur night game had already been played at Hull, Massachusetts, in 1880. The defensible version, “first night game involving a professional team”, is still contested.

Sources: 19th Century Baseball, 19cbaseball.com; TinCaps/SABR summary, oursportscentral.com

FILE 14 · PEOPLEDocumented

“Richardville was the richest man in Indiana · worth $23 million today · born under a miraculous apple tree.”

DocumentedThe reputation. The History Center states the “richest man in Indiana” standing as fact, and the treaty record, 28,320 acres, $31,800 in cash, portage toll income, makes great wealth plausible. No probate valuation was found, so this record attaches no period dollar figure until his estate papers are read.
Unproven“$23 million in today's money”, travel blogs, no source, no conversion method. Also unproven as worded: “the only extant treaty house in the nation” (other accounts say one of a few, or one of three east of the Mississippi). And the apple tree: the History Center itself files the 12-foot-circumference tree under “local tradition”; George Winter's 1848 sketch caption says only the “reputed birth place of chief Richardville.”

Sources: History Center, Richardville House, fwhistorycenter.org; Notes & Queries, the apple tree, historycenterfw.blogspot.com

FILE 15 · FLOOD 1982Sources conflict

“In 1982 the river crested at 26.93 feet, 30,000 volunteers saved the city, and Reagan named it ‘The City That Saved Itself.’”

ProvenReagan's visit and sandbagging, 16 March 1982, National Archives and DVIDS photographs; the History Center's artifact essay.
Sources conflictThe crest. The History Center's label for its “Dehydrated Flood Water” can (97.29.2) says the river “crested at 26.93 ft, just shy of the record 27.1 ft recorded in 1913.” The National Weather Service historical-crest series for the Maumee at Fort Wayne says 25.93 ft (17 Mar 1982) and 26.10 ft (26 Mar 1913). A full foot apart, gauge or datum unstated on the label. This record prints the NWS series and flags the label, never the reverse. Chart below.
Documented~30,000 volunteers, the figure on the commemorative can and in the University of Delaware's 1984 case study alike. (A South Side High School yearbook's “one-third of 173,000” is a higher, unsourced contemporary account; Mayor Win Moses's later “11,000 high school students… over 1 million sandbags” is participant memoir.)
Unproven“Reagan coined ‘The City That Saved Itself.’” Record-based accounts credit national newspapers or say the name was “reportedly” earned. No Reagan transcript with the phrase was found. Damage likewise splits by estimate: $56.1 million (News-Sentinel figure) against a $21.8 million early estimate in the 1983 yearbook, state which estimate, dated when.

Sources: History Center artifact 97.29.2, fwhistorycenter.org (read in full); NWS series via aroundfortwayne.com

FILE 16 · PLACESMisidentified

“The Old Fort on Spy Run is Anthony Wayne's fort.”

MisidentifiedThe most common visitor error in the city. The Old Fort is a 1975–76 reconstruction of the third fort (1815–16, Maj. John Whistler's plans), built for the Bicentennial less than a quarter-mile from the original sites and opened June/July 1976. Nothing above ground survives of the 1794 fort; its downtown site is marked by the DAR boulder and plaque (1934/1944) at Clay & Berry. And the present Historic Fort Wayne, Inc. (founded 2004, all-volunteer) is not the original 1960s–80s organisation of the same name.

Sources: City of Fort Wayne facility record, cityoffortwayne.in.gov; ACGSI, acgsi.org

The reconstructed Old Fort in Fort Wayne, wooden palisade and blockhouses on a green
The Old Fort on Spy Run Avenue, a 1975–76 Bicentennial reconstruction of the third fort (1815–16), not Anthony Wayne's 1794 work. See Claim File 16. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.

The crest that won't sit still

Maumee River at Fort Wayne, feet. Solid bars: the National Weather Service historical-crest series. Outlined bars: the figures printed on the History Center's 1982 flood artifact label. One of the two series is measuring something different, the label does not say what. (Claim File 15.)

26.10 27.1 (label) 25.93 26.93 (label) 1913 1982 NWS NWS

NWS series via Around Fort Wayne / ACGSI floods page. Flood stage at Fort Wayne is 15 ft; both crests stand ~11 ft above it.

§ 04

Government · how it started, and who held it

From officers chosen in a tavern in 1824 to a nine-member council in Citizens Square.

Scope of this edition, stated plainly: the mayoral roster is complete, 1840–today. City Council, City Clerk and County Council are given as currently held (November 2026). The founding town offices of 1830 and the federal land-office registers are recorded below. Office-by-office historical rosters for the remaining seats, clerks, controllers, council members across 186 years, township and court officers, are an open file, listed in § 08, to be compiled from the Quest Club papers and the city directories rather than guessed at.
Every name is a profile. Every mayor in the roster below, every City Council and County Council member, the City Clerk, and every person in § 06 is clickable, tap a name to open who they are and what they did for the city, on the record. Where this record's file on a person is still thin, the profile says so plainly rather than padding it.
The Allen County Courthouse in Fort Wayne, green-domed Beaux-Arts courthouse, a National Historic Landmark
The Allen County Courthouse (1902), seat of the county Fort Wayne's founders organised in 1824. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.

It started in Ewing's Tavern

When Allen County was organised in 1824, the founding fathers gathered in Ewing's Tavern, at Barr and Columbia streets, and, in the News-Sentinel's Cityscapes telling, selected one another for the county's offices. Six years on, the village's citizens assembled, debated, and voted to incorporate Fort Wayne as a town, electing an assessor, a treasurer, a tax collector, a marshal and a street supervisor. “In this primitive fashion,” the paper wrote, “Fort Wayne was governed for 11 years.”

City government begins 22 February 1840: incorporation, a prompt election, and George W. Wood as first mayor, a New Yorker who had read law at Ann Arbor, then given it up to become the town's second newspaperman alongside Sentinel founder Thomas Tigar. Wood won a second one-year term in 1841, then asked the council, halfway through it, to let him go back to his private affairs. The first mayor was also the first to quit.

Source: News-Sentinel, Cityscapes, egen.fortwayne.com; incorporation dates per the standard record

City government today

Fort Wayne runs a strong mayor–council system: the mayor is chief executive, proposing the budget, signing legislation, appointing department heads, running day-to-day operations, and the Common Council is the legislative and fiscal body. The mayor serves four-year terms with no limit. Population 263,886 (2020 census). Offices below as of 1 November 2026.

Mayor

Sharon Tucker

Democratic. In office since 23 April 2024, seated by party caucus to complete Tom Henry's term after his death in office; she had served on City Council. Next mayoral election: 2027.

City Clerk

John McGauley

Elected office, in service since January 2026. The clerk keeps the city's official records, ordinances and council agendas, runs the Violations Bureau and parking enforcement, and administers oaths of office. Before it: Allen Superior Court executive (2014–2025) and two terms as Allen County Recorder.

Source: City of Fort Wayne staff directory, cityoffortwayne.in.gov

How council works

Nine seats, six districts

Six members represent districts of roughly 44,000 residents each; three are elected at-large. Four-year terms, no term limit. Council meets the first four Tuesdays of the month, 5:30 p.m., Room 35, Citizens Square (200 E. Berry St). Districts were last redrawn in 2022 after the 2020 census, by moving exactly one precinct.

Source: City of Fort Wayne council FAQ, cityoffortwayne.in.gov

SeatMemberPartyNotes
At-largeMartin BenderRepublicanCouncil President (presiding in the council's October 2026 sessions)
At-largeMichelle ChambersDemocratic
At-largeTom FreistrofferRepublican
District 1Paul EnsleyRepublican
District 2Russ JehlRepublicanCouncil President in the preceding term
District 3Nathan HartmanRepublicanThe seat Sharon Tucker held before becoming mayor
District 4Scott MyersRepublican
District 5Geoff PaddockDemocratic
District 6Rohli BookerDemocratic

Composition 6 Republican – 3 Democratic. Sources: Fort Wayne City Council roster, en.wikipedia.org; 2026 session records of the independent Council Attendance Project. Council offices sit part-time, every member holds a full-time job outside the chamber (City FAQ).

Allen County Council · the county's fiscal body (county organised 1824; county seat: Fort Wayne)
At-largeRobert A. ArmstrongPresident
District 3Paul W. LagemannVice President
District 1Kyle Kerley
District 2Thomas A. Harris
District 4Don A. Wyss
At-largeKen Fries
At-largeLindsey Hammond

Seven members: four by district, three at-large. Meets at the Edwin J. Rousseau Centre, 1 East Main St. Source: Allen County, allencounty.in.gov

Every mayor, 1840–today

Thirty-seven people have held the office across 46 administrations, the two counts differ because Fort Wayne kept re-electing its mayors: William J. Hosey held the office in four separate stints, Charles Zollinger, Franklin Randall, Henry Scherer and Harry Baals in two each, and Winfield Moses famously left and came back inside a single term. Tom Henry is numbered the city's 44th mayor by administrations, its 35th by person.

Notes flag the deaths in office, the eleven-day mayor, and the man who resigned and returned within a fortnight.
No.MayorAdministration(s)PartyOn the record
1George W. Wood1840–1841WhigFirst mayor; the pioneer newspaperman. Resigned mid-term in his second year.
2Joseph Morgan1841–1843Whig
3Henry Lotz1843–1845Whig
4John M. Wallace1845–1846Whig
5Merchant W. Huxford1846–1849Democratic
6William Stewart1849–1852 · 1855–1857DemocraticTwo separate administrations.
7Philip G. Jones1852–1853Know Nothing
8Charles Whitmore1853–1855Democratic
9Samuel S. Morss1857–1859Know Nothing
10Franklin P. Randall1859–1865 · 1869–1873DemocraticCivil War mayor in his first administration.
11James Worden1865–1866Democratic
12Benjamin Saunders1866–1867Democratic
13Henry Sharp1867–1869RepublicanFirst Republican mayor.
14Charles A. Zollinger1873–1885 · 1891–1893DemocraticSix terms across two administrations; died in office in his second, Dec 1893.
15Charles F. Muhler1885–1889Democratic
16Daniel L. Harding1889–1891RepublicanCarried in on a reform campaign, the first Republican elected in the city in 22 years (News-Sentinel).
17Henry P. Scherer1893–1894 · 1896–1901DemocraticStepped in on Zollinger's death, then won the office outright.
18Chauncey B. Oakley1894–1896Republican
19Henry C. Berghoff1901–1906DemocraticOf the Berghoff brewing family.
20William J. Hosey1906–1910 · 1914–1918 · 1922–1926 · 1930–1935DemocraticFour separate administrations, the city's most-returned mayor; held the office across three decades.
21Jesse Grice1910–1914RepublicanFormer sheriff; mayor through the 1913 flood.
22W. Sherman Cutshall1918–1922Republican
23William C. Geake1926–1930Republican
24Harry W. Baals1935–1948 · 1952–1954RepublicanOften miscited as the longest-serving mayor; his combined service was about 15 years. Died in office (kidney infection), 9 May 1954, in his fourth term.
25Henry E. Branning Jr.1948–1952Democratic
26Robert Meyers1954–1959RepublicanTook office on Baals's death.
27Paul Mike Burns1960–1963Democratic
28Harold S. Zeis1964–1971Republican
29Ivan A. Lebamoff1972–1975Democratic
30Robert E. Armstrong1976–1979Republican
31Winfield Moses1980 – 8 Jul 1985 · 20 Jul 1985–1987DemocraticThe flood-fight mayor of 1982. Resigned 8 July 1985 after pleading guilty to three misdemeanor campaign-finance violations, then, twelve days later, a Democratic precinct caucus (86 of 99) voted him back in to finish the term.
32Cosette Simon8–19 Jul 1985DemocraticCity Controller, appointed acting mayor for eleven days between Moses's two administrations, the city's first woman mayor.
33Paul Helmke1988–1999RepublicanThree terms; the Headwaters Park era.
34Graham Richard2000–2007DemocraticTwo terms.
35Tom Henry2008 – 28 Mar 2024DemocraticLongest-serving mayor, five terms, after twenty years on City Council. Died in office (stomach cancer), 28 March 2024.
36Karl Bandemer28 Mar – 23 Apr 2024DemocraticDeputy mayor; acted for 26 days between Henry's death and the caucus.
37Sharon Tucker23 Apr 2024 – presentDemocraticSeated by caucus from City Council; incumbent.

Roster cross-checked between the City of Fort Wayne's official mayors page, cityoffortwayne.in.gov, and the full list with life dates and notes, en.wikipedia.org. Where the two disagree on a year boundary by one year (common for 19th-century terms that began in May), this table follows the dated list. Before the mayoralty: town officers from 1830 (assessor, treasurer, tax collector, marshal, street supervisor) and the county officers chosen at Ewing's Tavern in 1824; the federal land office's registers of 1823–43 (Samuel C. Vance; William Polke, who died in office 26 Apr 1843) are recorded by the Political Graveyard, politicalgraveyard.com.

§ 05

Business · the arc of the working city

Pumps, wire, trucks, refrigerators, and the shops that built the locomotives.

Fort Wayne's business history is unusually checkable, because its firms left patents, catalogues and employment counts behind. The pattern repeats: a genuine, provable first, and a legend that improves on it. The legends are graded in § 03; here is the arc itself.

The business dig · batch one: the first firms, 1819–1833

This section is being rebuilt as a graded history of every business in Fort Wayne, worked oldest to newest, still operating or long gone alike. Batch one covers the town's first firms, a trading post, two taverns, a fur house, the first mill, a tannery, two single-mention trades, a corner store, and the first newspaper. Open any entry for its graded profile: the grades follow § 01, conflicts are flagged rather than smoothed over, and a thin record is labelled thin and never padded. No photographs are published with this batch.

1819 – by succession

Barnett–Hanna Trading Post

Documented

Samuel Hanna's store (later S. Hanna & Co.), Indian trade and general merchandising at Barr and Columbia; grew from a log cabin to a brick block, with branches at Lafayette, Wabash and South Bend, and continued under his sons as S. Hanna & Sons. Exact closure date unproven; the record is thin at the end.

Business dig, entry 1 · Founded 1819

1823 per marker · licensed 1824

Suttenfield's Tavern

Documented

William Suttenfield's house, northeast corner of Barr and Columbia (lot 33), one of the city's first two taverns, holding the first tavern licence in organised Allen County, granted 10 August 1824. No closure date found, labelled thin.

Business dig, entry 2 · Thin record

Built after 1822 · licensed 1824

Washington Hall

Documented

Alexander Ewing's tavern, southwest corner of Barr and Columbia, also rendered Washington House. Allen County was organised in this house in 1824. Exact build year unproven; thin after 1824.

Business dig, entry 3 · Thin after 1824

1827 – 1854

W.G. & G.W. Ewing Company

Documented

The House of Ewing, William G. and George Washington Ewing's fur and Indian trade, merchandise, land and removal contracting, rivalling the American Fur Company east of the Mississippi. Wound up after William's death in 1854; estate settlement finalised October 1865.

Business dig, entry 4 · Founded 1827

1827 – 1888

Barnett & Hanna Mill

Documented

The first gristmill, the county's first water-powered mill, on the St. Marys River in what is now Foster Park; later the Fairfield, Beaver/Glenwood and Esmond mills. Brice's 1868 history dates it 1824–25; the conflict is flagged on the profile. Destroyed by fire 15 May 1888 after 61 years and never rebuilt.

Business dig, entry 5 · Completed August 1827

1828 – end date unproven

Holcomb & Marquis Tannery

Documented

Absalom Holcomb (spelled Halcomb in one account, flagged) and Isaac Marquis's tannery at the west end of Columbia Street. The building outlived the firm, becoming the Robinson Hotel, then the Grand (1876), the Brunswick (1888) and the Randall (1889), standing until 1963. The tannery firm's own end date is unproven.

Business dig, entry 6 · Opened 1828

1828

The 1828 Trades · Truckery & Cushman

Unproven

Two single-mention trades carried as one combined thin-record entry: Madore Truckery's cooper shop (the name's spelling is itself unproven) and Holloway Cushman's blacksmith shop, south side of Berry Street east of Calhoun. No course or fate found for either · labelled thin, never padded.

Business dig, entry 7 · Combined thin-record entry

c.1828 – no closure found

Zenas Henderson's General Store

Documented

Henderson's general store at the northeast corner of Calhoun and Columbia, with his brick tavern-house on the same corner, one of the town's three early hotels, and host of the Christmas Temperance Ball on 24 December 1833. No closure date found; thin at the end.

Business dig, entry 8 · c.1828, passage claim

1833 – 2020

The Sentinel

Documented

Fort Wayne's first newspaper, founded 6 July 1833 by Thomas Tigar and Samuel V. B. Noel, documented, approaching proven. Became the Times and Sentinel, then The Democrat (1866), took the Sentinel name back in 1873, and merged in 1918 to form the News-Sentinel. Print ended 2017–18; publication suspended November 2020.

Business dig, entry 9 · Founded 6 July 1833

The business dig · batch two: mills, money and the market, 1834–1881

Batch two continues the graded history oldest to newest: a Maumee mill, the city’s first bank, its public market, its second newspaper, the Bass foundry, the Pennsy Shops and Jenney Electric. Entries 10–11 of the dig (Townsend’s Mill and John Gerard’s lime-kiln, both Adams Township firms) are held pending a ruling on county scope and are not published here. Open any entry for its graded profile: grades follow § 01, conflicts are flagged rather than smoothed over, and a thin record is labelled thin and never padded. No photographs are published with this batch.

By 1834 – 1871

Coles / Wines Mill

Documented

David Coles’s Maumee sawmill, advertised for sale 14 June 1834; erection year unproven. Marshall Wines bought it in autumn 1838 and added the flour mill (Woodlawn). Destroyed by fire 24 March 1871 and never rebuilt.

Business dig, entry 12 · In existence by 14 June 1834

1835 – 1857

Fort Wayne Branch, State Bank of Indiana

Documented

Fort Wayne’s first bank, opened 25 August 1835, Hugh McCulloch cashier from October 1835. Location conflict unresolved: Main & Clinton vs Francis Comparet’s home on Columbia Street — both carried, flagged. Successor branches opened 1 January 1857.

Business dig, entry 13 · Opened 25 August 1835

1837 – today

Barr Street Market

Documented

Samuel Hanna donated the land in 1837; frame market house within six months, stalls $5 a year. City operation ended 1966; survives as the YLNI Farmers Market. Conflicts flagged on the profile: 1910 architects and cost, and History Center ownership 1988 vs 1990, unresolved.

Business dig, entry 14 · Founded 1837

1840 – 1866

Fort Wayne Times

Documented

The Whig newspaper founded 1840 — existence by 29 August 1840 proven by a surviving issue; the 1841 founding claim is flagged, not discarded. Under John W. Dawson from September 1853; the Times as a separate title ends in 1866.

Business dig, entry 15 · Founded 1840

1853 – after WWII

Bass Foundry & Machine Works

Documented

Railroad car wheels and axles; at its peak called the world’s leading manufacturer of railroad wheels. Founding-name conflict carried in full: Jones, Bass & Company vs Cooper, Bass & Company (1853). Bankruptcy reorganisation 1939; closed after World War II; exact dissolution date unproven.

Business dig, entry 16 · Founded 1853

1857 – 1953

Pennsy Shops

Documented

The Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad chose Fort Wayne for its construction and repair shops in 1857; Jones, Bass & Co. sold the site operation that September. Locomotive rebuilding ended 1933; last railroad operations closed 1953; property abandoned by 1966.

Business dig, entry 17 · Founded 1857

1881 – 2015

Jenney Electric → General Electric

Documented

James A. Jenney’s arc-light company, organised 1 November 1881; lit the 1884 New Orleans World’s Fair. The 2 June 1883 night game is documented; the “first night game” claim is graded misidentified. GE absorption date conflict carried in full (1892 / 1898 / January 1899 / 1916). Closure 2015.

Business dig, entry 18 · Organised 1 November 1881

The business dig · batch three: pumps, knitting mills and magnet wire, 1885–1964

Batch three runs from the pump makers to the pattern shop, oldest to newest by Fort Wayne founding or arrival: Bowser, the Thieme knitting mills, Wayne Pump, Dudlo and Tokheim, International Harvester, Inca, Capehart-Farnsworth, Magnavox, Rea, Essex, Fort Wayne Metals, Bowmar, the thin-record New Haven Wire and Cable, and Ward. One entry is a backfill — Wayne Knitting Mills (1891) takes its place here, in founding order, though it was researched later. Entries 10–11 of the dig remain held pending a ruling on county scope and are not published here. Open any entry for its graded profile: grades follow § 01, conflicts are flagged rather than smoothed over, and a thin record is labelled thin and never padded. No photographs are published with this batch.

1885 – 1961/62

S. F. Bowser & Company

Documented

Sylvanus F. Bowser’s self-measuring pump company, at 1302 East Creighton Avenue. First sale 5 September 1885 — a kerosene pump; the gasoline version followed in 1905. With Wayne Pump and Tokheim it made Fort Wayne the gas-pump manufacturing capital of the world. Headquarters left for Chicago in the mid-1950s; the plant closure is carried 1961/1962 — the sources conflict, and both years are printed.

Business dig, entry 19 · Founded 1885

1891 – 1960

Wayne Knitting Mills

Documented

Theodore F. Thieme’s full-fashioned hosiery mill — “Wayne Knit” — at West Main and Growth Avenue, “Knitters Avenue.” About 2,500 workers at its height, one of the city’s largest employers of women. Sold to Munsingwear in 1923 over its founder’s objection; the Fort Wayne mill closed in 1960. A backfill entry, researched later and placed here in founding order.

Business dig, entry 29 · Founded spring 1891 · backfill

1891/92 – today

Wayne Pump Company

Unproven

One of the three pump firms that made Fort Wayne the gas-pump capital — and this dig’s standing lesson in grading: its Fort Wayne founding cannot yet be proven. The company’s history says a first pump designed in 1891; collector research says first production in 1892, and the entry prints both, unreconciled. The brand survives today inside Dover Fueling Solutions; no Fort Wayne operation remains.

Business dig, entry 20 · Founding UNPROVEN

1898 – absorbed

United Knitting Mills

Documented

Frederick Thieme’s children’s-hosiery company, incorporated in September 1898 at Cleveland and the L.E.&W. Railroad — the 1900 city directory states the month and the $50,000 capital in the listing itself. Maker of “Pony Stockings” for Wayne Knitting Mills. Later bought in by his brother Theodore; the purchase date is unproven.

Business dig, entry 33 · Incorporated September 1898

1909 – c.1925

Thieme Brothers Hosiery Company

Documented

Theodore and John Thieme’s silk-hosiery subsidiary of Wayne Knitting Mills, in the new fireproof silk mill on Knitters Avenue from autumn 1909 — a contemporary newspaper report corroborates the mill, the biography names the company. Excluded from the 1923 Munsingwear sale; the Fort Wayne branch was sold about 1925, the buyer unnamed. Not the brothers’ tailoring firm of the same name.

Business dig, entry 34 · Founded 1909

1911 – 1933

Dudlo Manufacturing Company

Documented

George Jacobs’s magnet-wire company, formed in 1911 and on Wall Street from 1912 — the firm that made Fort Wayne the Magnet Wire Capital of the World. By 1922 the world’s largest magnet-wire maker. Merged into General Cable in 1927; Fort Wayne production moved to Rome, New York, in 1933. Its successors are three separate lines — corporate, Jacobs and people/plant — not one chain.

Business dig, entry 22 · Formed 1911

1901 · Fort Wayne 1918 – 2006

Tokheim

Documented

John J. Tokheim’s pump company, founded in Cedar Rapids in 1901 — not Fort Wayne — and relocated here entire in 1918. In World War II the Fort Wayne plant built bombs; by the mid-1990s Tokheim was the undisputed North American gasoline-dispensing market leader. Bankruptcy split the corporation in 2003; the Fort Wayne plant closed 28 February 2006. The brand continues under Dover Fueling Solutions.

Business dig, entry 21 · Fort Wayne arrival 1918

1923 – 1983

International Harvester — Fort Wayne Works

Documented

International Harvester’s Fort Wayne Works, East Pontiac Street: 1,527,299 trucks in sixty years, plus 532,674 Scouts from the adjacent plant. Employment peaked at 10,600 in early 1979. The city, county and state assembled a $31 million retention package and lost to Springfield, Ohio; the last truck rolled off the line on 15 July 1983 — proven.

Business dig, entry 23 · Production began 1923

1928/29 – 1930/31

Inca Manufacturing Company

Documented

George Jacobs’s second magnet-wire company — the first Dudlo spin-off, founded in 1928 or 1929 after he left General Cable; the two founding chains conflict by a year and both are printed. Sold to Phelps Dodge in 1930 or 1931 and became the basis of Phelps Dodge Magnet Wire in Fort Wayne. The standalone record is thin beyond founding and sale, and is labelled so.

Business dig, entry 24 · Thin standalone record

1928 · Fort Wayne 1929 – 1956

Capehart → Farnsworth Television & Radio

Documented

Homer Capehart’s automatic-phonograph company, incorporated at Huntington in February 1928 and in Fort Wayne from 15 June 1929, at 3700 East Pontiac Street. Sold to Philo Farnsworth’s television company in 1938/39, then to ITT in 1949; the Capehart consumer line was sold off in 1956 and the name disappeared from radio and television.

Business dig, entry 30 · Fort Wayne from 15 June 1929

1917 · Fort Wayne 1930 – 1995

Magnavox

Documented

Pridham and Jensen’s loudspeaker company, formed in California in 1917, which moved its manufacturing to Fort Wayne in 1930 to be near the magnet-wire supply — plant 1931, headquarters 1932, the three steps kept distinct. Consumer electronics left for Knoxville in 1981; the Fort Wayne defence group was sold to Hughes in 1995. No operation under the Magnavox name remains here.

Business dig, entry 25 · Fort Wayne manufacturing from 1930

1933 – today

Rea Magnet Wire Company

Documented

Victor Rea’s magnet-wire company, formed in 1933 out of Dudlo — on its own timeline’s wording, the first independent producer of enameled wire in the country. Still operating and headquartered in Fort Wayne; it bought the Phelps Dodge magnet-wire business in 2006, closing the Inca lineage into itself, and was acquired by Germany’s Elektrisola in 2023.

Business dig, entry 26 · Founded 1933

1930 · Fort Wayne plant 1936 – today

Essex Wire Corporation — Fort Wayne Plant

Documented

Addison Holton’s Detroit wire company (founded 1930 — not a Dudlo spin-off) bought the vacant Dudlo plant on Wall Street in 1936 and grew into Essex International. The headquarters later left Fort Wayne for Atlanta; the year it left is unproven, and the headquarters-move dates are a three-way conflict carried unresolved. The Fort Wayne operation continues under Superior Essex.

Business dig, entry 27 · Fort Wayne plant acquired 1936

1946 – today

Fort Wayne Metals

Documented

Ardelle Glaze’s recording-wire company of 1946 — 80% of U.S. recording wire within five years, on the family’s account, carried as a claim. The first company was sold and its Fort Wayne plant closed in 1968; Glaze founded the present medical-wire firm anew in 1971. Still family-owned in Fort Wayne, over 1,500 employees in 2024. The 1946 date is printed with the break stated.

Business dig, entry 28 · Founded 1946 · refounded 1971

1951 – today

Bowmar Instrument Corporation

Documented

Edward and Joan White’s precision-gearing company, started in a barn loft at Smith Field in 1951 — the Whites’ founding is confirmed by a federal court’s findings. Its Bowmar Brain of fall 1971 is generally regarded as the first LED-display, first pocket-size calculator; the calculator line’s collapse took the company into Chapter XI in February 1975. It survived on defence work and operates today as Bowmar LLC.

Business dig, entry 31 · Founded 1951

By 1960 – fate unproven

New Haven Wire and Cable Company

Unproven

A thin-record entry, labelled thin and never padded: a Fort Wayne magnet-wire producer named in the 1960 account of the city’s magnet-wire centre and in Hawfield’s 1993 account — and nothing else found. No founding date, founder, plant address or fate; no year is printed. It is not the Connecticut firm of a similar name, and the two are kept separate.

Business dig, entry 32 · Thin record

1964 – today

Ward Pattern & Engineering → Ward Corporation

Documented

Marion and Vern Ward’s pattern shop, opened 18 May 1964 in 1,500 sq ft of the old Wayne Knitting Mills building on Growth Avenue. Ward Aluminum Casting followed in 1978, out of Gail Cole’s 1969 foundry — the firm’s two dates reconcile and are not a conflict. Still family-owned at 642 Growth Avenue, over 250 employees across four divisions. The “late 1940s” site claim is graded misidentified in the profile.

Business dig, entry 35 · Opened 18 May 1964

The business dig · batch four: insurance, television and the bowling trade, 1923–1969

Batch four runs from a Fort Wayne hosiery firm’s Los Angeles branch to the television age and the pattern-shop foundries, oldest to newest by Fort Wayne founding or arrival: Theme Brothers Hosiery, K&K Insurance, the city’s first three television stations — WKJG-TV, WANE-TV and WPTA — Classic Products, Brown Equipment and Cole Precision Castings, with the undated, thin-record Wayne Warehouse placed last: its only dated record is a November 1982 mention, so no year is printed for it. Two entries are backfills — Theme Brothers (1923) and Classic Products (1959) take their places here, in founding order, though they were researched in later passes. Entries 10–11 of the dig remain held pending a ruling on county scope and are not published here. Open any entry for its graded profile: grades follow § 01, conflicts are flagged rather than smoothed over, and a thin record is labelled thin and never padded. No photographs are published with this batch.

1923 – fate unproven

Theme Brothers Hosiery

Documented

The Thieme brothers’ Los Angeles mill, opened in 1923 as the West Coast branch of the Fort Wayne Thieme Brothers Company — Theodore Thieme bought the land in 1921, Fort Wayne knitting men staffed the start, and his brother John managed it. Theodore entrusted it to John in 1925; no source in hand records how it ended. A backfill entry, researched later and placed here in founding order.

Business dig, entry 37 · Founded 1923 · backfill

1952 – today

K&K Insurance Group, Inc.

Documented

Nord and Teddi Krauskopf’s specialty insurer, born in 1952 out of a benevolent fund for injured race drivers — and itself a NASCAR team owner, winning the 1970 Grand National Championship with Bobby Isaac. Bought by Aon in 1993 and still headquartered in Fort Wayne, insuring sports, leisure and events under the motto “Insuring the World’s Fun.”

Business dig, entry 39 · Founded 1952

1953 – today

WKJG-TV → WISE-TV

Documented

Fort Wayne’s first television station: William Kunkel’s WKJG-TV signed on at 7:45 p.m. on 21 November 1953, Hilliard Gates speaking the first words. Renamed WISE-TV in 2003, an NBC station until the 2016 affiliation swap made it The CW; today a Gray Media station in a duopoly with WPTA.

Business dig, entry 40 · On air 21 November 1953

1954 · Fort Wayne 1956 – today

WANE-TV

Documented

The market’s second station, signed on 26 September 1954 as WINT, licensed to Waterloo and aimed at Fort Wayne — the two dates are carried separately, on the Tokheim pattern. Indiana Broadcasting bought it in 1956, renamed it WANE-TV and moved it to Fort Wayne. A CBS affiliate throughout; today Nexstar’s, at 2915 West State Boulevard.

Business dig, entry 41 · On air 26 September 1954

1957 – today

WPTA

Documented

Sarkes Tarzian’s channel 21, signed on 28 September 1957 with Fort Wayne studios but a Roanoke licence — the FCC deemed the market too small for three stations. The call letters are his children’s initials. Known since 1978 as “21 Alive” (retired 2016, revived 2022); today Gray Media’s ABC station, with NBC on its second subchannel.

Business dig, entry 42 · On air 28 September 1957

1959 – today

Classic Products Corp.

Documented

Bob Carteaux and Marty Schmidt’s bowling-supply firm, started in 1959 in the Key Lanes pro shop as Fort Wayne Bowling Supply. The tee-shirt lettering side outgrew the bowling side; the bowling operation was sold in 1987 and renamed Classic Products Corp. A Brunswick buyout announced in December 2024 was amicably terminated a week later — it is still independent, at 4617 Industrial Road. A backfill entry, placed here in founding order.

Business dig, entry 43 · Founded 1959 · backfill

1968 – today

Brown Equipment Company

Documented

Ralph E. Brown’s municipal-equipment firm, opened in Fort Wayne in 1968 and built around the Porta-Patcher pothole patcher — though its own two company histories disagree on whether the Porta-Patcher was the opening product, and the conflict is carried open. From manufacturer it became a factory-authorised dealer; today seven locations across five states.

Business dig, entry 44 · Founded 1968

1969 – 1978

Cole Precision Castings

Documented

Gail Cole’s aluminium foundry, started in 1969 beside his brother-in-law’s Ward pattern shop on Growth Avenue — prototype and short-run sand castings for aerospace and automotive work. Grown to 40 employees by 1978, when Ward Aluminum Casting, Inc. was formed by assuming its assets and liabilities. The record is a single chain, and the profile says so.

Business dig, entry 36 · Founded 1969

By 1982 · undated

Wayne Warehouse

Unproven

A thin-record entry, labelled thin and never padded: one contemporaneous mention, in the News-Sentinel’s November 1982 Cityscapes, has Wayne Warehouse owning the old Wayne Knitting Mills buildings and leasing them for public and private use — and nothing else was found. No founding date, founder or fate; its relation to Ward’s 1980 purchase in the same complex is carried unproven, with the best-fit reading stated.

Business dig, entry 38 · Thin record

The industrial arc · 1857 to today

1857 – 1933

The Pennsy Shops

~3,950

Workers by 1913 at the Pennsylvania Railroad's construction and repair shops on Samuel Hanna's donated land (the ex-Bass Foundry site). Fort Wayne built locomotives until after WWI and rebuilt them until 1933, “Altoona of the West.”

Quest Club industry paper; National Register nomination

1881 – today

Jenney Electric → General Electric

~40%

Of the city's entire workforce employed by GE at its late-1940s peak. James A. Jenney's arc-light works (1881) passed through Thomson-Houston to GE (1899). The Broadway campus, Electric Works, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2023.

News-Sentinel Cityscapes; National Register news release, 2023

1885 –

The pump makers

3 firms

Bowser (kerosene pump 1885, gasoline 1905), Wayne Pump and Tokheim made Fort Wayne a national centre of fuel dispensing, the industry the service station was built on. The History Center holds the S. F. Bowser & Co. collection and its glass negatives.

Indiana Landmarks; History Center collections

1911 –

Magnet wire

World #1

George Jacobs, an ex-GE chemist, founds Dudlo in 1911; through Dudlo → Essex → Rea → Phelps Dodge, Fort Wayne becomes the world's leading magnet-wire producer, the documented basis of “Magnet Wire Capital of the World.”

Quest Club industry paper

1923 – 1983

International Harvester

1,527,299

Trucks built in sixty years on East Pontiac Street, including 532,674 Scouts (1960–1980). Peak employment 10,600 in early 1979; the closure announcement led the Journal Gazette on 28 Sept 1982, and the last truck left on 15 July 1983.

ACGSI, with newspaper citations

1946 – today

Fort Wayne Metals

80%

Of all U.S. recording wire was made by Ardelle Glaze's young company within five years of its 1946 founding. Glaze remortgaged his home at 60 to relaunch in medical wire (1971); the firm remains family-owned, quality leader in medical wire, with 750+ employees.

Junior Achievement BEL Hall of Fame profile, 2015

The Embassy Theatre and Indiana Hotel on Jefferson Boulevard, Fort Wayne
The Embassy Theatre (1928), 125 W. Jefferson Blvd, built by the city's show-business era, and home each November to the Festival of Trees. Photo via Wikimedia Commons. Its ghost is Claim File 08.

The Magnavox decision

In September 1972 Magnavox shipped the Odyssey from Fort Wayne, the first commercial home video-game console in the world. The invention was Ralph Baer's, in New Hampshire; what happened here was the headquarters demonstration, the March 1971 licence, and the engineering conversion that turned a laboratory “Brown Box” into a product a family could buy. Graded in full as Claim File 12.

The same pattern, Fort Wayne as the place inventions became industries, runs through the refrigerator (File 10) and the pump (File 11). The city's honest boast is not that it dreamed these things first. It is that it built them, at scale, for decades.

§ 06

People of the record

The chiefs and the general first, then the mayor who died at his desk, and the natives the wider world knows.

Engraved portrait of General Anthony Wayne
Gen. Anthony Wayne (1745–1796), from a 19th-century engraving. Public domain. The fort he named in October 1794 named the city; why he is “Mad” Anthony is Claim File 05.

The founders, on both sides of the river

Little Turtle, Mihšihkinaahkwa (b. c.1747 or c.1752, unproven either way; d. 14 July 1812). War leader of the Miami, victor over Harmar and St. Clair, signatory at Greenville, where his “glorious gate” speech survives in four differing primary versions. He died at his son-in-law's house here and was buried with U.S. military honours, a defeated enemy accorded a garrison's respect.

William Wells, Apekonit (d. 1812). Captured as a boy and raised Miami, he married Little Turtle's daughter, interpreted at Greenville, and served as U.S. Indian agent at Fort Wayne. Little Turtle died under his roof; a month later Wells was killed at Fort Dearborn. No figure better embodies the confluence: claimed, fully, by both worlds.

Anthony Wayne (1745–1796). Commander of the Legion; won Fallen Timbers, selected the fort site, and died two years after dedicating the fort that carries his name, at Presque Isle, never having governed the town that grew from it.

Kekionga · Miami

Jean Baptiste de Richardville

PINŠIWA · 1761 – 13 AUG 1841

Chief and treaty negotiator across five decades; built the 1827 treaty house on Bluffton Road; reputed the richest man in Indiana at his death (File 14). His family's exemption spared them the 1846 Removal, for a generation.

The orchardist

John Chapman

“JOHNNY APPLESEED” · 1774 – 18 MAR 1845

Swedenborgian missionary and nurseryman whose death here is proven by the Sentinel of 22 March 1845, and whose grave, under the park marker, is unproven (File 01). The 1845 obituary already notes the strange garb and the bare feet in inclement weather; the tin-pot hat came later.

First mayor

George W. Wood

1808 – 1871 · MAYOR 1840–41

New York-born, law-trained, then the town's second newspaperman beside Sentinel founder Thomas Tigar. Elected the city's first mayor in 1840, and the first to resign the office, halfway through his second term.

Industry

S. F. Bowser

PUMP MAKER · FIRST SALE 5 SEPT 1885

Sold the first self-measuring pump to a Fort Wayne grocer, for kerosene (File 11). The company he founded on Creighton Avenue made the city a capital of fuel dispensing; its records and glass negatives rest at the History Center.

City Hall

Tom Henry

1951 – 28 MAR 2024 · MAYOR 2008–24

Twenty years on City Council, then five terms as mayor, the longest service in the office's history. Died in office; the succession that followed (Bandemer, then Tucker) is in the roster at § 04.

City Hall

Sharon Tucker

MAYOR SINCE 23 APR 2024

Seated by Democratic caucus from her council seat to complete Henry's term, the 37th person, and 46th administration, to hold the office. Incumbent at the date of this record.

Born here, known everywhere

Birthplaces below are the documented ones, several of these Fort Wayne natives were raised elsewhere, and the record says so rather than claiming them whole.

Screen

Carole Lombard

BORN JANE ALICE PETERS · 6 OCT 1908 – 16 JAN 1942

Born in Fort Wayne; the defining screwball comedienne of 1930s Hollywood (My Man Godfrey, 1936), among the highest-paid stars in America, about $500,000 a year at her peak, before her death in a 1942 plane crash returning from a war-bond tour.

Fashion

Bill Blass

1922 – 2002

Born in Fort Wayne; became one of the defining American fashion designers of the 20th century, dressing First Ladies and building a licensing empire from a Fort Wayne start.

Screen

Shelley Long

B. 23 AUG 1949

Born in Fort Wayne; Diane Chambers on Cheers, five Emmy nominations and one win for the role, and a film career alongside it. Raised here; attended Northrop High School.

Screen

Dick York

1928 – 1992

Born in Fort Wayne; Darrin Stephens on Bewitched, a role he left after a back injury ended his run, one of television's most famous mid-series recastings.

Screen

Jenna Fischer

B. 7 MAR 1974

Born in Fort Wayne and raised in St. Louis, the record keeps both halves. Pam Beesly on The Office, Emmy-nominated; her mother taught the acting workshop where she first performed at six.

Sport

Rod Woodson

BORN IN FORT WAYNE

Snider High School and Purdue, then the Steelers and Ravens: one of the greatest defensive backs in NFL history, Pro Football Hall of Fame, class of 2009.

Sport

DaMarcus Beasley

BORN IN FORT WAYNE

U.S. Men's National Team winger across four World Cups (2002–2014), a Fort Wayne native who played club football in the Netherlands, England, Scotland, Germany and Mexico.

Sport

Mason Plumlee

BORN IN FORT WAYNE

NBA centre, Duke national champion (2010) and U.S. Olympic gold medallist (2016), the middle of three Plumlee brothers to reach the league.

Industry, by adoption

Ralph Baer

1922 – 2014 · THE ODYSSEY FILE

Not a native, a New Hampshire engineer whose “Brown Box” became the Odyssey because of a decision taken at Magnavox headquarters here (File 12). The record lists him under adoption, not birth: the distinction is the point of this site.

Birthplace sources: ACGSI people files and the October 2015 Visit Fort Wayne “born in Fort Wayne” listing, acgsi.org; Lombard biography via the Indiana famous-people record. Living people are listed by birth and work only.

The memorial on the hill. In Johnny Appleseed Park a fenced stone marker bears John Chapman's name. Stand there knowing exactly what it is: the death is proven, the burial in the Archer ground is documented, and this exact plot is a tradition ratified in 1934, not a located grave. Archer's own letter allows fifty feet of doubt (File 01).

Headwaters, where the people gather. The ground between the rivers, Kekionga's ground, then the defended flood plain of 1982, is now Headwaters Park, the city's festival floor. Upcoming gatherings there, at Parkview Field, and under the Night of Lights are listed on the Events page, checked on the date shown there.

§ 07

Events · on their own page

Current, Current Past, and Historic Past, the city's calendar, sorted the way time sorts it.

Events now live on their own page, in three bands: Current, happening now or coming up; Current Past, the recent past, this year's editions already held; and Historic Past, the deep record, from Harmar's Defeat to the flood fight. Events age through the bands: Current becomes Current Past once it happens, and Current Past settles into Historic Past over time.

Next on the calendar

WED NOV 25,
2026

HolidayFest & the Night of Lights

DOWNTOWN

The switch-on, Fort Wayne's official start to the holiday season, and the biggest annual gathering of the year.

NOV 12, 2026 –
JAN 4, 2027

Holiday Lights at Parkview Field

PARKVIEW FIELD

More than a million lights choreographed to music in the ballpark bowl.

NOV 25 –
DEC 2, 2026

42nd Festival of Trees

EMBASSY THEATRE

Dozens of decorated trees fill the 1928 Embassy for its signature week.

Open the Events page · Current · Current Past · Historic Past ›

Events checked 1 November 2026 against the organisers' and visitors' listings; the full calendar, the recent past, and the historic record are on the Events page.

§ 08

Sources, the archive, and an empty chair

Where every grade on this page can be re-checked, and the gap this record fills.

The History Center (Allen County–Fort Wayne Historical Society, est. 1921), 302 E. Berry St in the 1893 Old City Hall, 32,000+ artifacts, photographs and documents, including the Samuel Hanna papers, the S. F. Bowser & Co. collection, the Magnavox Company collection, and the Civil Defense Records 1939–47 that settled File 09. Mostly in-person or by research request; a digitised subset runs through Purdue Fort Wayne into Indiana Memory. It also keeps the Richardville House and the Barr Street Market (1837). fwhistorycenter.org

ACPL Genealogy Center, 900 Library Plaza, the largest genealogy collection in an American public library. Fort Wayne newspapers 1833–present on microfilm; city directories 1858–present (the first, Williams' 1858–59, lists 2,668 names); an obituary index of ~800,000 entries, 1837–2024. Free online: the Community Album, obituary/cemetery/marriage/death indexes, PERSI. Licensed databases (Newspapers.com, NewspaperArchive and the like) are free inside the building only. acpl.lib.in.us

The newspaper trap, stated plainly: Hoosier State Chronicles, the state library's free newspaper portal, holds no Allen County titles. Fort Wayne's papers reach the open web piecemeal, the Daily News 1874–1923, Weekly Sentinel 1875–1917 and the Sentinel 1870–1923 through INSPIRE's providers (paywalled or library-login), 10,000+ scanned pages on the Internet Archive, and post-1920s issues effectively on ACPL microfilm. Anyone grading a 1950s Fort Wayne claim from a desk should say so.

Free and primary: treaty texts in the U.S. Statutes at Large and hundreds of scans in the National Archives Catalog; the 1791 Harmar Court of Enquiry; Sanborn fire-insurance maps for Fort Wayne (1885, 1890, 1902, 1906, 1918, 1919–51) free at the Library of Congress; pre-1923 city directories on the Internet Archive; Indiana Memory's aggregated collections (855 Fort Wayne results in a sample search); the NWS crest series; the 1984 Delaware flood case study; Ball State's orderly-book transcriptions; and the Myaamia Center's treaty and speech scholarship.

Who else publishes Fort Wayne history: the History Center narrates, with expert care and quiet hedges (“reputed birth place”); ACGSI/INGenWeb's volunteers aggregate thousands of pages with newspaper citations and occasional conflict notes, the closest thing to an evidence culture the city has; Historic Fort Wayne reenacts; ARCH writes the markers; FortWayne.com debunks episodically; the Facebook groups reminisce, unindexed.

The empty chair: as of this record's research (1 November 2026), no Fort Wayne publisher was found that takes a single popular claim, dates it, quotes the contemporaneous record, and publishes a verdict grade. That is the seat this page sits in. (Absence established by web search; closed Facebook groups and print newsletters cannot be audited from outside.)

Open questions · the honest tail of the ledger

Who coined “Summit City”?

No contemporaneous 1840s printed use, coiner, or date found. Resolution requires the Sentinel and Times runs on ACPL microfilm and the canal commissioners' reports.

1969 or 1970 · the Odyssey demonstration

Indianapolis Monthly dates Baer's Fort Wayne demo to 17 July 1969; Baer's republished chronology says 1970. To be settled from Baer's papers (Smithsonian) before this record prints a year. (File 12.)

Which gauge read 26.93 feet?

The History Center label's 1982 crest cannot be matched to the NWS series from anything published online. Needs the City Flood Control / USGS gauge history. (File 15.)

What was Richardville actually worth?

No probate valuation found online. The History Center archives or Allen County probate, in person, hold the answer, until then, no dollar figure ships. (File 14.)

The rest of the roster book

Mayors are complete in § 04; the historical holders of the clerk's office, the controllership, individual council seats, and the county and township offices are not yet compiled in one verified place. The raw material exists, a 20-page Quest Club paper on the mayors, the city directories from 1858, council minutes at the Clerk's office, and the roster will be built from it, office by office, rather than padded out.

Photographs · credits & rights ledger

The standing rule for this project, applied on this page: only public-domain and freely licensed photographs are published. Anything that is not public domain is published only after a permission request to its holder has been made and granted, and is entered in this ledger when it is. Modern photographs this record wants (a current skyline, Parkview Field at night, the Appleseed memorial, Headwaters Park) are held back until permission is recorded; that is why the photography here is archival and Commons-licensed.

PhotographSource fileLicence / statusChecked
1913 flood, Wells Street Bridge (cover)Period photograph album, Allen INGenWeb (ACGSI), source pagePhotograph of March 1913, public domain by age; courtesy credit given1 Nov 2026
Little Turtle19th-century colour engraving after the portrait painted from lifePublic domain, underlying artwork is a 19th-century engraving1 Nov 2026
Anthony Wayne19th-century engraved portrait printPublic domain, underlying artwork is a 19th-century engraving1 Nov 2026
Richardville HouseWikimedia Commons file, fileFreely licensed via Wikimedia Commons, credit in caption1 Nov 2026
The Old Fort reconstructionWikimedia Commons file, fileFreely licensed via Wikimedia Commons, credit in caption1 Nov 2026
Allen County CourthouseWikimedia Commons file, fileFreely licensed via Wikimedia Commons, credit in caption1 Nov 2026
Embassy TheatreWikimedia Commons file, fileFreely licensed via Wikimedia Commons, credit in caption1 Nov 2026
Held for permission (not published)Modern skyline, Parkview Field at night, Appleseed memorial, Headwaters Park photography, Visit Fort Wayne, Input Fort Wayne and the photographers of recordNo licence could be verified, so none is published. Requests to be sent; a photograph joins the page only when its permission is recorded in this ledger1 Nov 2026

The Fort Wayne Hub is published by Project Moosed.