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William Polke’s trading post on the Tippecanoe River and Michigan Road north of Rochester will be marked by a metal plaque on a boulder erected by Fulton County Girl Scout Troop 43611. The double log cabin trading post housed Fulton County’s first post office, named Chippeway, and Polke was the first postmaster in 1832. He sold kettles, glass beads, cloth, guns, and blankets to the Indians who brought furs to trade. Polke was Fulton County’s first white settler, coming in 1830 to survey the Michigan Road. He built the first frame house north of the Wabash River, and sold Michigan Road lands from his house. Polke was a member of the 1816 convention that wrote Indiana’s first constitution. He was known as a friend of the Indians and was the conductor on the Potawatomi removal that went down in history as the Trail of Death. The William Polke trading post marker will be dedicated October 5 at 5 p.m. The public is invited.

Q&A with Legacy Project Coordinator Shirley Willard

What do you consider the key accomplishment of your Legacy Project?

• Marking the first trading post in Fulton County and first post office at Chippeway in William Polke's trading post on Michigan Road (Old 31) and Tippecanoe River north of Rochester. Polke was surveyor and commissioner of Michigan Road, helped write the 1816 state constitution and was federal conductor on the Potawatomi removal of 1838, known as Trail of Death. He was a very historic figure in Indiana history and Fulton County's first white settler.

Describe a highlight or most memorable memory related to your Legacy Project.

• The Girl Scouts at the dedication were so happy and loving toward the boulder with metal plaque which they had worked to earn money to pay for. It was Oct. 5, the Torch Relay day for Rochester.

How/where are you preserving information and artifacts related to your Legacy Project?

• Fulton County Historical Society Museum, 37 E 375 N, Rochester IN 46975. Phone 574-223-4436. Open Monday - Saturday 9 to 5, closed holidays.

Total number of volunteers who participated.

• About 20

Estimated total attendance.

• About 30 attended the dedication on Oct. 5

Estimtaed dollar amount raised.

• $600

Estimated dollar amount spent.

• $600

Committee Members and other helpers

• Ellen Boardman and Tracy Risner, Fulton County Girl Scout Troop 43611 Leaders
• Shirley Willard, Fulton County Historian
• Melinda Cliner, Fulton County Historical Society Museum Director
• Rex and Joan Bowen
• Zimmerman Brothers Funeral Home
• Bill Willard

Project Details

• Organization: Fulton County Girl Scout Troop 43611/Fulton County Historical Society
• County: Fulton
• Contact: Shirley Willard, 574-223-2352, wwillard@rtcol.com
• Type: Non-Profit
• Project Number: IBC-HC-405
• Website: www.fultoncountyhistory.org

William Polke’s Trading Post historical marker

By Shirley Willard, Fulton County Historian

Fulton County Girl Scouts Troop 43611 and Fulton County Historical Society will erect a historical marker for William Polke’s Trading Post on the Tippecanoe River and Michigan Road (Old 31) two miles north of Rochester. The Scout leaders are Tracy Risner and Ellen Boardman, Rochester.        This marker was dedicated Oct. 5, 2016, at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 5 is the day the Indiana Bicentennial Torch was carried through Fulton County.

Polke was taken by the Indians when he was seven years old and learned their language. As an adult he was a missionary to the Potawatomi with his brother-in-law, Rev. Isaac McCoy at Niles, Mich. In 1816 William Polke was a member of the convention that wrote Indiana’s first state constitution. Other historical markers tell about this, but none tells about the trading post on the Tippecanoe River.

Polke was Fulton County’s first white settler, coming in 1830 to survey the Michigan Road, which is Rochester’s Main Street. He built the county’s first frame house in 1832, and this house/ stagecoach inn was moved to the Fulton County Historical Society grounds in 1993. A stagecoach line ran from South Bend to Indianapolis.

Polke was known to be a friend to the Indians and was appointed the federal conductor on the 1838 forced removal, replacing Gen. John Tipton, who was appointed by Indiana Governor David Wallace. The Potawatomi camped for the night along the Michigan Road from the Tippecanoe River to Polke’s stagecoach inn a mile north of the river. There were about 300 campfires. The next day, Sept. 5, 1838, the Indians were marched at gunpoint down Rochester’s Main Street. They camped that night at Mud Creek on State Road 25 where the first death occurred, a baby. Boy Scouts erected a marker there in 1976.

Tipton turned the removal over to Polke at Danville, Ill.  Father Benjamin Petit caught up with the Potawatomi at Danville, Ill., and cared for the sick and dying. Forty-two died on the 660 mile trip to Kansas, hence it went down in history as the Trail of Death. Polke and Petit did the best they could, not having modern medicine. It was typhoid, and the white people were dying in the villages they passed through. The year 1838 was a year of terrible drought so water was scarce. What water they found was stagnant. If they had just known to boil the water, there would not have been so many children that died.

Polke’s trading post was a double log cabin on the south side of Tippecanoe River, east side of Michigan Road (Old 31). In 1832 Polke established Fulton County’s first post office in this trading post and he was our first post master. The post office and village was named Chippeway. Sometimes it was spelled Chippewa but letters signed by Polke’s daughter Mary have it spelled Chippeway. That is probably how they pronounced it.

The Trail of Courage has a replica Chippeway post office which offers post cards and commemorative postal folders with history of the honored Potawatomi family each year. Visitors can write post cards and mail them there during the two-day event, the third weekend of September.

 To help with this historical marker, send check to FCHS, 37 E 375 N, Rochester IN 46975 and note it is for the Polke trading post marker.        The Girl Scouts cooked and served a pancake and sausage breakfast Aug. 27 from 7 to 10 a.m. at the Fulton County Museum for a free will donation. The metal plaque cost $600. The boulder was donated by Rex and Joan Bowen, who have lots of huge rocks on their farm. The boulder was hauled by Fulton County Highway Dept. The huge boulder at the Tippecanoe River and Old 31 erected by Manitou Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution in 1925, was hauled from Bowen’s farm, pulled by five horses.

Fulton County Girl Scout Troop 43611 gather around the boulder and cast aluminum plaque commemorating William Polke trading Post on Old 31 (aka Michigan Road) and Tippecanoe River north of Rochester. From left: Sarah McIntosh, Bridget Holloway, Charla Milner, Dianna VanLue, Autumn Schaeffner,  Shelbie Risner,  Abby Cox, Katlyn Cox, Rex and Joan Bowen, Shirley Willard –Fulton County Historian. The Bowens donated the boulder from their farm in Richland Township, Fulton County, for the historical marker. The dedication was Oct. 5, the same day the Indiana Bicentennial Torch Relay went through Rochester. Shirley Willard is wearing her Torch Bearer outfit.

William Polke was a member of the Indiana State Constitutional Convention in 1816. He was the federal conductor on the Potawatomi Trail of Death, the forced removal that marched the Potawatomi down Rochester’s Main Street Sept. 5, 1838. The historical marker was a Bicentennial Legacy Project. We celebrated Polke’s life and achievements as Commissioner of the Michigan Road, but also celebrated the survival of the Potawatomi. Many of the Trail of Death descendants are members of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Shawnee, Ok., who are honored at the annual Trail of Courage Living History Festival each year the third weekend of Sept. at the Fulton County Historical Society grounds.