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1895
A year late, and grand anyway: General Anthony Wayne's men raised the first Fort Wayne in October 1794, which made the city's centennial due in October 1894. It was held in 1895. The News-Sentinel's Kevin Leininger, retelling it in 1982 from historian B. J. Griswold's account, gave the story its standing headline: Fort Wayne forgot its own 100th birthday. The History Center's record of the celebration's commemorative key gives the plainer mechanics — the celebration "was a year late due to the lack of funding in a previous effort" — and the two tellings together are the record: an observance first attempted, unfunded, and then mounted a year late on $2,000 from the county and $3,000 from the city.
What the money bought, October 15–18, 1895 by the History Center's dates, was a week of civic theater: street-spanning arches, bunting and electric lights; a 100-gun salute to open — Leininger's account puts the salute on the morning of October 16; a parade five miles long that took seventy-five minutes to pass the reviewing stand; bicycle races and band contests; meetings of the pioneers and of the GAR veterans; baseball games; a mock battle at the old driving park; and fireworks for the finale. Governor Claude Matthews and Mayor Chauncey B. Oakley presided, and Perry A. Randall, president of the Centennial Committee, was its active organizer. The celebration's durable artifact is small: the Fort Wayne Centennial Key, kept by the History Center — the souvenir of the party the city almost didn't throw.
Sources:
- The History Center, object record HE 29, "Fort Wayne Centennial Key" — the October 15–18, 1895 dates, the funding delay, the program, and Perry A. Randall's committee presidency.
- Kevin Leininger, "City forgot its birthday, but threw a party anyway," Cityscapes, News-Sentinel, March 6, 1982 — Griswold's telling, the $2,000 / $3,000 funding, the 100-gun salute, and the five-mile parade.
- Ralph Violette, Fort Wayne, Indiana (Images of America, 1999) — the arches and the belated birthday in photographs.