Register Holman and Captain Vance established their office in the old fort where much of the clerical work of the business came under the direct supervision of a young man who accompanied Captain Vance as his assistant, Allen Hamilton. Hamilton later became one of the most foremost merchants in the Fort Wayne area. He was born in Tyrone county, Ireland in 1798 and came to America in 1817 to retrieve the family wealth which had been lost by his father. In this he was quite successful after arriving at Fort Wayne. As a trader, he became a good friend of the Miamis, and in particular Chief Richardville. In this manner he was generally able to obtain choice land sites from the Indians in exchange for payment of their debts. He and Tipton later became partners in buying and improving Indian lands for speculation. In political affairs he was not so successful, later incurring the powerful opposition of the Ewings by reason of his friendship with the American Fur Company. The act that set up the land office at Fort Wayne provided that all public lands for which the Indian title had been extinguished and which had not been granted to or secured for the use of any individual or individuals or appropriated and reserved for any other purpose were to be opened for sale. It was necessary to make some decision about the fort and public buildings which had been used by the Indian agency since the withdrawal of the garrison in 1819. Upon the recommendation of Lewis Cass, the site of the fort and thirty acres additional were withheld from the sale in order that the Indians assembling for councils or annuity payments might have a place for encampment. The land speculators were bitterly disappointed and made periodic efforts to secure part of the valuable reserve. Tipton was one of the principal opponents of its sale as long as the agency remained at Fort Wayne.[2] On October 22, 1823—the thirty-third anniversary of Harmar’s defeat on this same spot, and the twenty-ninth anniversary of the dedication of the original fort—the government land sale was opened in the fort. John T. Barr, a merchant of Baltimore, Maryland, and John McCorkle, an active citizen of Piqua, Ohio, combined their resources and purchased the tract which is known as the Original Plat.