After peace came finally with the end of the struggles of 1812-15, the scene around the fort was one of rare beauty. The extensive clearing made by order of General Wayne in 1794, and again by General Harrison in 1812, was covered with waving grass. Circling this was the green forest, pierced by three gates through which flowed the gleaming rivers. The days of Indian warfare had come to an end, the day of white settlement in numbers was yet in anticipation. The first year of peace, 1816, brought to the troops and the few families at Fort Wayne a well founded feeling of security and comfort. This feeling of security and comfort was not based upon the standard of today, for few could endure now in comfort the life typified by the tallow dip and open fire, the ox-cart and the pirogue. The national government realized the permanent return of peace, and already had removed from the other western posts the troops stationed there for the protection of the pioneers. But the time had not yet arrived when the Washington authorities considered it wise to remove the military garrison from Fort Wayne. The Indians still thronged here in large numbers. Their periods of gathering to receive their annuities brought hundreds to the little settlement and here, ofttimes, they remained for several weeks. Following the war, there was no settlement nearer than St. Mary’s in Ohio, and between Fort Wayne and Fort Dearborn (Chicago) only one white man, a fur trader named Joseph Bertrand, had ventured to establish his abode near the site of the present city of South Bend, Indiana. Until 1818, all of northern Indiana was considered Indian territory. However, this was not true in central and southern Indiana where ever-increasing numbers of pioneers were settling. After the end of the War of 1812 and the Napoleonic conflicts, a commercial depression hit the eastern states, and multitudes sought new homes in the West. The seaboard could no longer furnish the returned soldier nor the ruined merchant with opportunities. This led to a rush of the people into the new country beyond the mountains. The westward movement, in turn, gave an immediate demand for highways of transportation. Traffic over the rivers showed a steady increase over former years, and the Maumee-Wabash portage once again became a busy pathway of commerce. Chief Jean Baptiste Richardville, who was granted a license to trade at Fort Wayne in 1815, nearly monopolized the carrying-trade over the portage. Through this profitable business, and by the sale of the land granted to him as chief of the Miamis in various treaties, Richardville became the wealthiest Indian then living in American. In five treaties he acquired over 44 sections of land and $31,800. It is known that he had $200,000 in silver alone at the time of his death in 1841.[1]