Major Whistler was chronically in debt. In fact, his financial outlook was almost hopeless. With a salary, as a captain, of $40.00 a month, he had a family of fifteen children to maintain. To make matters worse, the visits of the government paymaster were highly irregular. On one occasion, he wrote to a creditor that he had received no pay in a period of more than two years. “I hope you will not think I complain against my government for detaining my pay,” he added, “No, but necessity forces me to make the real statement to satisfy my creditor.”[36] It is distinctly to Major Whistler’s credit that even in the act of pressing for payment his creditors frequently paused to express confidence in his honesty and sympathy for his lot. The year 1814, which marked the return of the Whistler family also marks the re-establishment of family life in and about Fort Wayne. While the Maloch and Peltier families remained at Fort Wayne throughout the war, the other Fort Wayne families had taken refuge mainly in the more settled areas along the Ohio river. Some of the families never did return, but among those who did was the Louis Bourie family. Bourie as early as 1786 maintained a profitable enterprise at the portage by keeping pack-horses and a warehouse for the deposit and transportation of merchandise and peltries. During the war, he moved to Detroit with his wife and two children. Soon after his return to Fort Wayne in 1814, Bourie was given a contract to provide bread for the soldiers, and in 1815, he built a bakery at the corner of the present Clinton and Columbia streets. A short time later he established a general store and erected a log residence adjoining the building. George Hunt, who had served as a sutler prior to the war, also returned to Fort Wayne in 1814. He was the son of Colonel Thomas Hunt, the third commander at Fort Wayne. With George Hunt came his younger brother, John Elliott Hunt. Lt. Daniel Curtis, to whom we are indebted for the best account of the siege, was still connected with the post in 1814. Other residents of the fort in that year included Benjamin Stickney, who remained as Indian agent; Benjamin Berry Kercheval and Peter Oliver, clerks of the agent; Charles Peltier a fur trader; John P. Hedges, who had first visited the fort in 1812 and who was now stationed at the fort as a storekeeper; Dr. Daniel Smith, the post surgeon; Robert Forsythe, who later became a paymaster in the United States army; and a French blacksmith, Louisaneau, who had a government appointment to do work for the troops as well as the Indians about the fort.