On October 6, 1818, the Miami nation ceded to the United States that part of their land to the south and southwest of Fort Wayne. This section of land lay between the Wabash near the mouth of the Racoon Creek and St. Mary’s river as far north as the portage at Fort Wayne. The treaty was concluded at St. Mary’s, Ohio, with Governor Jennings, Lewis Cass, and Benjamin Parke, serving as commissioners of the United States and Chief Richardville acting as principal spokesman for the Miamis. This treaty, together with one concluded with the Wyandots the previous year, gave to the United States complete ownership of the territory south of the Maumee and Wabash rivers. Thus the way was opened for travel and settlement in Indiana as far north as Fort Wayne. According to the treaty of St. Mary’s, many sections of land near Fort Wayne were reserved for individuals designated by the Miamis. These individuals included the following: Chief Jean Baptiste Richardville, Joseph Richardville (the chief’s son), Francis LaFontaine, the son of George Hunt, Little Little Turtle, Josette Beaubien, Eliza C. Kercheval (daughter of Benjamin Kercheval, sub-agent at Fort Wayne) John B. Bourie, Ann Hackley (the daughter of William Wells), and the children of Maria Christina DeRome and LaCros. A reading of these names indicates the strong influence the early French traders had acquired over the Miamis by intermarriage. As mentioned in an earlier chapter, Richardville’s father, Joseph Drouet de Richerville was a French trader. The granting of individual reserves to the chiefs and other men favored by the Indians in the treaty of 1818 led to a dangerous innovation in land and Indian policy which later permitted the traders to grab the choice land sites before the government attained control of it. In the later treaties the Indian traders and agents combined their resources to secure the best sections of land through the consent of the Indians in payment of actual or supposed debts. The year 1819 witnessed an important and significant change at Fort Wayne, the departure of the troops and the abandonment of the fort as a military stronghold. The formal evacuation took place on April 19, 1819, in pursuance of orders issued by the Secretary of War. The treaty of St. Mary’s and the westward movement of the settlers had carried the frontier beyond Fort Wayne. At the time of the departure of the troops, the garrison consisted of Major Vose, one post surgeon, two captains, one first lieutenant, five sergeants, four corporals, four musicians and seventy-five artillerymen and privates—ninety-six men in all—in addition to a group of women and children. Major Vose and his men went directly to Detroit by way of the Maumee, in pirogues. They took from the fort its equipment of heavy armament, including one six and one twelve-pounder cannon. Fort Wayne was the last of the Indiana posts maintained by the government and had served as an American fort for more than a quarter of a century.