Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)/Fort Wayne

FORT WAYNE, a city and county-seat of Allen co., Ind.; at the confluence of the St. Mary and St. Joseph rivers, and on the Wabash, the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern, the Lake Erie and Western, the Grand Rapids and Indiana, the Fort Wayne, Cincinnati and Louisville, and other railroads; 43 miles S. W. of Defiance, O. It is built on a high plateau, covers an area of about 10 square miles, and is popularly known as Summit City. Here are a United States Government building, several county buildings, Concordia College (Luth.), and several other educational institutions, Hope and St. Joseph Hospitals. Fort Wayne has street railroads, electric lights, sewerage system, improved waterworks, several National banks, and numerous daily, weekly, and monthly periodicals. Among the industries are extensive railroad, machine and repair shops which occupy many acres, flour mills, knitting mills, oil-tank works, and packing houses. The French visited this locality about 1700, and shortly afterward a trading post named Fort Miami was founded. The English constructed a fort near the place in 1760. General Wayne located a government post here in 1794. Pop. (1910) 63,933; (1920) 86,549.