The small outpost at Fort Wayne was to play an important part in the events preceding the conflict as well as in the war itself. Captain Wells, through his close acquaintanceship with the Indians, kept well informed of conditions. He was the first to notify the Secretary of War, Dearborn, of the new danger emanating from the Prophet’s power.[1] In June, 1807, Wells reported that a sort of religious madness had spread among the Indians. A constant stream of warriors had passed Fort Wayne, on the way to the Prophet during April and May; at least 1,500, he estimated, had made the pilgrimage to Greenville, and many more were due in August and September, after the Indian crops had ripened. A month later he wrote to Governor Harrison: Two confidential Indians that I sent to that quarter [Mackinac] have returned today and say that all the Indians in that quarter believe in what the Prophet tells them.... I am also informed by a letter from Detroit that the inhabitants of that place are fortifying themselves. We are all alarmed at this place, myself excepted, as I can see no danger as yet at our doors. Something must be done. It cannot be done too soon.[2] Wells had sized up the situation correctly. The threat was real and dangerous, but not immediate. That winter he informed Harrison that there was a very unusual assemblage of Potawatomis in the vicinity of Fort Wayne; however, he added that he thought their intentions were pacific. Harrison was not so certain of their friendly intentions and requested Wells to send two or three chiefs to him that he might ascertain their true purpose. The Secretary of War was even more alarmed at the news, and he urged Harrison to visit Fort Wayne in order to find out their real object. Dearborn also mistrusted Wells, who, he thought, was “too attentive to pecuniary considerations.”[3] Despite the reports of dissatisfaction with the conduct of Wells by his superiors, Harrison and Dearborn, Congress, in 1808, in recognition of his past services, granted him the right of pre-emption to one section of land in the present Spy Run and Bloomingdale districts of Fort Wayne at $1.25 an acre. It was in this section that Wells had already established his farm. Wells died before he could pre-empt the land, but his children took advantage of the government’s offer and entered the property in 1823.