- Allen Hamilton
Allen Hamilton 1798-1864 was a founding father of
Fort Wayne, Indiana .Allen Hamilton immigrated from Ireland in 1820, living in
Lawrenceburg, Indiana just long enough to marry Emeline J. Holman. She was the daughter of Judge Jesse Holman, who was a founder ofFranklin College and theIndiana Historical Society . The Hamiltons moved toAllen County, Indiana in 1823 to become deputy clerk in the U.S. Land Office. He was elected the first sheriff of the county (1824-1826), named postmaster of Fort Wayne (1825-1831) and county auditor, clerk and recorder (1831-1838).In the 1820s, he partnered with Cyrus Taber to form the Indian trading company of Hamilton & Taber. The firm was prosperous, and Hamilton won the trust and confidence of many Indians, particularly
Chief Jean Baptiste de Richardville of theMiami tribe . In 1834 and again in 1838, he was appointed to the United States Commission to Negotiate Treaties with Miami Indians in Northern Indiana. In 1840, he served on the Commission to Extinguish Indian Titles in Indiana, and was appointed United StatesIndian agent to the Miami tribe from 1841-1845.In 1851, Hamilton was a Whig delegate to the
Indiana Constitutional Convention. He served in the Indiana State Senate for one term, beginning in 1859.Until his death in 1864, Hamilton remained active in business as President of the Fort Wayne branch of the Indiana State Bank and of the Allen Hamilton National Bank in Fort Wayne.
In 1861, Hamilton donated land for a baseball field at the corner of Lewis Street and Calhoun Street. In 1871, that field was the site of the
Fort Wayne Kekiongas first major league baseball game ever played.Allen Hamilton was the grandfather of author
Edith Hamilton whose books on mythology are classic, and ofAlice Hamilton , a pioneer in American industrial medicine, was the first woman on the Harvard medical faculty. Allen's great-great-grandson, Holman Hamilton, is noteworthy for a two-volume biography of PresidentZachary Taylor .See also
* History of Fort Wayne by Wallace Brice, published by D.W. Jones and Son, 1868.
* Allen Hamilton Papers, Indiana Historical Society.
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