Dr. William Turner, Stickney’s successor, had been stationed at Fort Wayne between 1810-12 as garrison surgeon’s mate. On April 7, 1813, he was promoted to surgeon in the Seventeenth Infantry. He resigned from the army on January 31, 1815, returned to Fort Wayne as a private citizen, and married Anne Wells, daughter to Captain William Wells. On March 6, 1819, he was appointed agent for the Miami, Eel River, and other Indians, and in 1820, assumed all of Stickney’s duties. Because of ill health, Turner began to drink considerably, and within a year, on May 24, 1820, Calhoun informed him of his removal from office in consequence of “unsatisfactory conduct.”[17] However, the affairs of the agency were not turned over to his successor, John Hays, until August, 1820. Turner died at Fort Wayne in 1821. At a time when the story of Indian relations was a sordid and corrupt one, revealing on the part of traders, agents, and officials of the Indian administration a baseness and moral depravity that was unusual even for the nineteenth century, John Hays stands out as one of the few agents who could not be classed in such a group. Hays was born in New York City in 1770. While a youth, he engaged in the Indian trade as a clerk in a trading house in Canada. In 1793 he settled at Cahokia, Illinois, where he held a number of government positions until his appointment at Fort Wayne. Unfortunately for the Indians of this area, Hays remained at Fort Wayne less than three years. John Hays was never happy at Fort Wayne, despite his good work. He could not bring his family here, as they were too numerous to move a great distance, and the five hundred miles to Cahokia was also too far for Hays to visit them. Furthermore, Hays became disgusted when he found that by his own efforts, he was helpless in checking the traders from furnishing the Indians whiskey. On one occasion the traders combined against him to prevent the issuance of a presidential order curtailing the amount of whiskey brought to Fort Wayne. Hays also urged the appointment of a sub-agent to assist him in controlling the situation, and the reestablishment of a military force at Fort Wayne. “It is neither [at] Chicago, Green Bay, Prairie du Chien, Falls of St. Anthony, Rock River, or any part of the Mississippi or even Michilimakanac ... that in my opinion a Military force would be more necessary.”[18] he wrote to John Calhoun. The opinion of Hays was not one to be lightly put aside, as it was he, who on the strength of his wide experience, furnished information on the routes for the armies and the distribution of forces from Montreal to Michilimackinac during the War of 1812.