| | LIVED HERE 70 YEARS Interesting Life Story of John H. Archer. Member of Pioneer Family Talks of the Early Days in Allen County. Mr. John H. Archer yesterday celebrated the seventieth anniversary of his birth, and the announcement of the event was fraught with 80 much that is interesting in the early history of Fort Wayne that a Journal Gazette representative sought an Interview with Mr. Archer, whose acute memory recalls minutely many details of the story of the upbuilding of the city and the development of the country round about. There are few men in Fort Wayne who have accomplished 80 much toward the building of the communit y as has John H. Archer, who, in spite of his three score years and ten is still active in business and alert mentally and physically. Nor are there more than one or two living who have witnessed the stirring events of the better part of a century and remember them all accurately. "I have helped to clear the woods from elghteen farms. I have reared, or helped to rear, nineteen children, five of my own and fourteen orphans; I have built forty two houses in the city of Fort Wayne, and have laid out over 400 lots, comprised in several addittons Fort Wayne," said Mr. Archer, with pardonable pride, and he added, possibly more proudly: "I ani not through yet. I am good for a lot of work still and Fort Wayne will hear more about me if I live and keep my health. which, I am glad to say, is much better than most men of : my age enjoy. Member of Pioneer Family. Mr. Archer 1s a member of one of the oldest families of Allen county. His great grandfather, Judge Benjamin Archer, came 1824 from ton, O., and invested his small fortune In farm lands in what was then the wildernesa north of the village. Hth immediate ancestors had come rom Ireland prior to the revolutionary war. On both -sides Mr. Archer is descended from colonial ancestry. The Irish Archers first settled in New Jersey. and then moved to Ohio. The maternal ;ancestors were the Whitesides, also Ulster Irish, who sottled Arst in Richmond. Va., then moved to Baltimore, I and later to Chillicothe, frontier settlement. The Whiteside3 same to Fort Wayne shortly before the opening of the canal era. Mr. Archer': great -grandmother. "Aunt Betsy" Baltimore, who died at Chillecothe, 0., many years ago, was a relative of the Calvert family, the Lords Baltimore, whd first settled Maryland. The oldest member of the family now living is Mrs. Dulcinea Hensel, of Conneant, an aunt of Mr. Archer. She 18 now seven years of age and recently wrote that she intended to visit Fort Wayne next May. Helped to Make a City. of such sturdy stock WAS born John H. Archer, on March 23, 1837. on a farm in Washington township, about three miles north of the present city limits. He came to Fort Wayne in 1867, and first worked brickyard, then in' the boiler shop owned by the late Neil McLachlan, whose widow died two weeks ago. He then embarked in the real estate business and for a time was very successful. But | afterwards he lost heavily and had to begin over again. He worked undauntedly, however, and he has to his credit the laying out Beck's addition, Beck's sub., Archer's addition, Archer's out -lots, Archer's Brookside addition, and Wiegman's addition, and as he says, he is not unished. He has also assisted in the establishment of the Archer printing plant, which his BONA manage. "Bloomingdale la different now from what it was when frat knew It." said Mr. Archer. "'The only bridge across the St. Mary's was at Calhoun street, and it was a toll bridge. There, were Bloomingdale, then two houses. in country was practically a wilderness up to the Jail flate. remember well, between 1842 and 1850, nearing the wolves howling in packs around our house at night, less than three miles from the town. I remember once having Been bear tracks across the road when I was on my way to school, but I never Baw a bear here. brother, however, once, while riding horseback near where Mayaville now atanda, came across a black female bear and two cubs. But deer were very plentiful. The last place I ever saw a drove of deer together was on what 18 now the Goshen road, about two miles north of the present city limits. The road was just a winding trail through the woods, and saw a whole drove of deer cross it just ahead of me. *On July 4, 1843. I came to Fort Wayne and heard General Lewis Case deliver his speech on the opening of canal. He spoke in a grove near the present site of Swinney park. "My Uncle, Alex McKinley, the carpenter for the City mille, and Stephen Sithena, who died a year or two ago, wa8 the miliwright. The walls were raised with fashioned pike- poles. First Steam Boiler. "I knew all the Hamiltons, the Ewings, Hugh, McCulloch, Jesse L. Williams, and all the earlier pioneers. noticed reading a history some time ago that the Hamiltons brought the frat steam boiler to Fort Wayne. That la not true, for my great grand-father brought the first steam boiler here from Dayton, 0. He set it up and started a steam -mill on what 1s now the Jacob Rudisill farm, a short distance north of Centlivre's brewery. The mill burned. down and the boiler was then moved to the old still house, | owned by Francis Comparet. "Our family later moved onto what is now the Ridge road and settled on ta farm about ten miles from Fort Wayne. I remember the names of every farmer who lived between here and Hicksville in 1845. The frat across the river from the old fort, In what is now Lakeside, was a man named Coe. Then there came Jackson, • John Klinger, Voora, John TIlberry, Heary Tillberry, Mr. Reed, Goodale (the first to raise watermelons for sale in Allen county): Corey, : Naylor. Pattee. the grandfather .of Deputy Sheriff Pattee: Donor, A Frenchman; Wilkes Gillette (father of former recorder M. Gillette); John Heath, Milton Heath, Stephen Heath (uncles of Stephen Heath); Alvin Hall, Ambrose Miller. Mr. Reynolds, Samuel Archer, my father; ('harles Schreiner. Mr. Lake, Andrew Me tager, Mr. Driesbach, Johnson and Mr. May, the last one being the man after whom Mayaville was named. of all these Ambrose Miller is the only now living. He 18 both blind and deaf and is cared for by his children." Made First Brick. Mr. Archer's family made the brick I for the first brick buildings erected in Fort Wayne. The first was the Schwieters building, still standing on East Columbia street. Among others were the first brick court house, the Masonic temple where the Bash building now stands West Columbia street, and the old "post house" en East Columbia street between Calhoun and Clinton. Mr. Archer remembers the time when an occasional Indian strolled into town and when many half-breeds thronged the streets. **I have often heard of people saying they rememhered seeing the streets filled with Indians.' he said, "but they were migtaken. The Indians had been taken away before my time, but I remember seeing many breeds in the streets. In fact. some leading early families are descended from these half bloods." Another fact upon which Mr. Archer prides himself is that he is one of the few persons living who ever saw Johnny Appleseed, the famous character of early days. "I remember seeing him at our house often," he said. believe that Mr. George W. Brackenridge, Mr. Hiram Porter, of St. Joe township, and myself are the only living people who ever saw Johnny Appleseed. The late David Comparet also knew him. Johnny Appleseed was buried on what is now the (Continued on Page 9, Column 2.)