Date:
Early 1800s
Title:
Chief Jean Baptiste de Richardville Safe
Description:
Pinsiwa or Chief Jean Baptiste Richardville (1761-1841)
Born in 1761, Jean Baptiste Richardville was the son of a French fur trader father and a Miami Indian mother named Tacumwa, sister to the Miami war chief Little Turtle. Richardville and his mother were among the earliest entrepreneurs native to the Fort Wayne and Allen County area. Together they built a trading empire based on control of the "long portage" between the St. Mary's and Wabash Rivers, joining two water systems and thereby completing a pathway for commerce that extended from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.
His 1827 home is now recognized as the oldest Native American structure in the Midwest, the first Greek Revival style house in Indiana and the only surviving Treaty House in the nation. It was named a National Historic Landmark in 2012.
As principal Chief of the Miami, Richardville signed six treaties by 1840 that ultimately ceded over 950,000 acres of land in Indiana to the United States. Chief Richardville used governmental favors, commercial control of the portage and land sales to amass a fortune that left $200,000 in gold and silver at his death. Part of that wealth was kept in this "Hobnail" safe.
Born in 1761, Jean Baptiste Richardville was the son of a French fur trader father and a Miami Indian mother named Tacumwa, sister to the Miami war chief Little Turtle. Richardville and his mother were among the earliest entrepreneurs native to the Fort Wayne and Allen County area. Together they built a trading empire based on control of the "long portage" between the St. Mary's and Wabash Rivers, joining two water systems and thereby completing a pathway for commerce that extended from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.
His 1827 home is now recognized as the oldest Native American structure in the Midwest, the first Greek Revival style house in Indiana and the only surviving Treaty House in the nation. It was named a National Historic Landmark in 2012.
As principal Chief of the Miami, Richardville signed six treaties by 1840 that ultimately ceded over 950,000 acres of land in Indiana to the United States. Chief Richardville used governmental favors, commercial control of the portage and land sales to amass a fortune that left $200,000 in gold and silver at his death. Part of that wealth was kept in this "Hobnail" safe.
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Chief Richardville's Safe
Chief Jean Baptise de Richardville
Chief Richardville House
Chief Richardville's Safe
Key to Richardville Safe
Chief Richardville's Safe
Chief Richardville's Safe
Chief Jean Baptise de Richardville
Chief Richardville House
Chief Richardville's Safe
Key to Richardville Safe
Chief Richardville's Safe