Owing to the disapproval of his proposal by Governor Cass, head of the Fort Wayne agency, none of Hays’ suggestions were adopted, however. Hays was often at odds with Cass as to the manner of dealing with the Indians. In one instance, Hays had been having particular trouble with the Potawatomies under Metea. These Indians objected to traveling to Detroit to receive their annuity rather than coming to Fort Wayne, which was almost a hundred miles closer to their village, near the present site of South Bend, Indiana. Hays, therefore, agreed that the next payments should be made at Fort Wayne, but Cass ignored the agreement and ordered the Indians to come to Detroit. After they arrived, Cass reproached them for crossing into Canada to receive British gifts. Metea bitingly replied that they would gladly give up the practice, if the Americans gave out the annuities at Fort Wayne. During his second year at Fort Wayne, Hays was obliged to reduce his expenditures from $5,000 to less than $3,000 in line with a general reduction of funds for the Indian Department. At the same time, he needed money to repair the agency quarters within the fort, which were fast decaying. Added to the decay was the destruction brought about by Reverend Isaac McCoy’s Indian school children living within the fort. The property of the agency at this time was listed as “public dwellings inside the stockade, five dwelling houses outside the fort, one blacksmith shop, one coal house, one root house, one stable, two pastures, one timothy meadow, and one field all fenced.”[19] While John Hays was Indian agent at Fort Wayne, Benjamin Berry Kercheval served as his assistant at a salary of $500 a year. Kercheval was born at Winchester, Virginia, April 9, 1793, and went to Detroit when he was eighteen. Around 1818, Kercheval came to Fort Wayne and here served for a time as an interpreter for Benjamin Stickney. Later he became a representative of the American Fur Company, a position he held when he was employed by Hays. Hays used Kercheval a great deal and trusted him implicitly. In 1821, the birth of a daughter to Benjamin Kercheval and his wife, formerly Maria Forsythe, was an event of such interest to the Indians that they shortly adopted the child with solemn ceremonies as a member of the Miami tribe. The national government recognized the growing importance of Fort Wayne in the establishment of a post office in 1820. Although Samuel Hanna was in reality the first man to serve as postmaster at Fort Wayne, Kercheval whose commission bore the date of February 4, was the first appointee of President Monroe. Hanna established the office in his store, after Kercheval evidently had declined to serve.