Diary of Captain John Cooke, 1794
Prepared by the Staff of the Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County
1953
One of a historical series, this pamphlet is published under the directionof the governing Boards of the Public Library of Fort Wayne andAllen County.
BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE SCHOOL CITY OF FORT WAYNE
- B. F. Geyer, President
- Joseph E. Kramer, Secretary
- W. Page Yarnelle, Treasurer
- Willard Shambaugh
- Mrs. Sadie Fulk Roehrs
PUBLIC LIBRARY BOARD FOR ALLEN COUNTY
The members of this Board include the members of the Board ofTrustees of the School City of Fort Wayne (with the same officers), togetherwith the following citizens chosen from Allen County outside the corporatecity of Fort Wayne:
- James E. Graham
- Arthur Niemeier
- Mrs. Glenn Henderson
- Mrs. Charles Reynolds
FOREWORD
Primary source materials relating to General Wayne’s sojourn at Fort Wayne arescarce. Extracts from the diary of one of his captains were published in the FORTWAYNE GAZETTE eighty years ago.
The Boards and the Staff of the Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County reprintthese extracts in the hope that they will be interesting and informative to studentsof local history. Grammar, spelling, and punctuation have been changed to conform tocurrent usage.
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
June, 1873
To the Editors of the GAZETTE:
The following extracts from the journal of Captain John Cooke of the Fourth Sublegionof General Wayne’s army will be of interest to your antiquary (if Fort Wayne isold enough to boast of antiquities), since it contains the earliest market quotations ofyour city, notices of the first sermons preached there, etc.
Captain Cooke was a son of Colonel William Cooke, Twelfth Pennsylvania Regimentof the Continental Establishment; he entered the legal profession, which he laterabandoned for that of arms. He afterward lived and died at Northumberland Town,Pennsylvania.
His son, Jacob Cooke, Esq., is the possessor of this journal, which is written ina very scholarly hand and with great observance of details, most of which I have omittedas of no interest to the general reader. In the summer of 1792, Captain Cooke returnedwith General Wayne; with a party of officers on furlough to Philadelphia, he was personallyintroduced by General Wayne to General Washington. His fellow-officersaccompanied him to a fashionable boarding school in Philadelphia. There, in his battle-stained clothes,he married his cousin, Jennie Cooke of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
John B. Linn
September 17, 1794
At 6:00 a.m. the army marched thirteen or fourteen miles to the Miami villages.We halted more than two hours near the ground where a part of Harmar’s army was defeatedand directly opposite the point formed by the St. Joseph and the St. Mary’srivers, until the ground was reconnoitered. It was late when the army crossed and encamped;our tents were not all pitched before dark.
September 18, 1794
Strong breastworks were o