Barr And Columbia

Barr And Columbia. Where Allen County Began. Allen County was created on April 1, 1824, by a December 1823 act of the Indiana General Assembly. The newly created county was named for Col. John Allen of the Kentucky militia who had helped relieve the siege of Fort Wayne in 1812 and who was killed in the River Raisin massacre near Detroit in 1813. , Four commissioners named by the General Assembly were in Fort Wayne in May 1824 to oversee the organization of the county. The governor named Allen Hamilton, an Irish immigrant, to be the first sheriff (until one could be elected). The first election of county officers took place on May 22, 1824. The newly elected commissioners then named the other officers of the county, set the tax rate, and established fares, licenses, and prices for hotel meals and rooms, stable rents, and liquor sales. , The first meetings and elections were all held in Alexander Ewing's log tavern, known as “Washington Hall,” located on the corner of the muddy intersection of Barr and Columbia streets. Ewing's Tavern was the first to be built in Fort Wayne, with a rival tavern being constructed shortly thereafter by William Suttenfield on the opposite corner. The first circuit courts in the county sat alternately in each tavern until a courthouse could be built. The first grand jury sat at Ewing's Tavern in August, followed by the first session of the circuit court and the first election of justices of the peace. , Samuel Hanna, one of the first judges of the circuit court, as shown in a lithograph of about 1850. (Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society). , Presented by the Journal-Gazette Foundation , For more information, contact: Arch an organization for historic preservation