Star Theory Games

Star Theory Games (formerly Uber Entertainment Inc.) was an American video game developer based in Bellevue, Washington. Founded in March 2008 by Bob Berry and Jonathan Mavor, it released its first title, "Monday Night Combat", in 2010 to positive reviews. The company assumed the name Star Theory Games in 2019. It wound down in March 2020 after the contract for its game "Kerbal Space Program 2" was canceled by publisher Private Division, which set up a new studio and hired a large portion of Star Theory's staff in December 2019 to continue the game's development, before Star Theory and its remaining staff became unable to secure new publishing agreements as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
History.
Uber Entertainment was founded by Bob Berry and Jonathan Mavor in March 2008 in Bellevue, Washington. They became the studio's president and chief technology officer, respectively.
In September 2012, the company successfully ran a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for its real-time strategy title, "Planetary Annihilation". The fundraiser produced over US$2.2 million in funds. The original retail release was slated for December 2013, but was postponed, with the game expected "to be feature-complete in early 2014."
On March 31, 2014, Uber Entertainment announced PlayFab as a spinout to continue development of their UberNet back-end gaming service. On January 29, 2018 PlayFab was acquired by Microsoft to form Microsoft Azure PlayFab.
On October 2, 2014, Uber Entertainment announced a new Kickstarter campaign for a real-time strategy game, "Human Resources". The goal was set for $1.4 million, though the project was cancelled October 21, 2014 after projections showed the fundraiser would fail to raise the needed capital.
On August 18, 2015, Uber Entertainment released as a stand-alone expansion to Planetary Annihilation.
On August 17, 2018, Planetary Annihilation Inc was founded to continue development and publishing of the Planetary Annihilation and games.
At the 2019 Gamescom, Uber Entertainment announced it had changed its name to Star Theory Games, and was working with publisher Private Division, a subsidiary of Take-Two, to produce "Kerbal Space Program 2". Creative director Nate Simpson said that the name change was due to their prior name being confused with Uber, the car-share company; Simpson noted that Uber had previously gotten permission from them to use the "Uber" name before, which they had granted. The original "Kerbal Space Program" had been produced by Squad, but Take-Two acquired the rights to the series in 2017, helping Squad to publish and meet their commitments to their players before handing over the intellectual property. Private Division opted to bring in Star Theory, a larger team but with similar capabilities, to work in parallel to develop the sequel while assisting Squad with the original game.
However, Take-Two announced it had created a new studio within Private Division in February 2020, later named Intercept Games, and had transferred development duties of "Kerbal Space Program 2" there; along with this, members of Star Theory, including creative director Nate Simpson and studio head Jeremy Ables, had joined with this new studio, leaving Star Theory's role in the game unclear. According to Jason Schreier for "Bloomberg News", around December 2019, shortly after they negotiated an extension to complete work on the game, Take-Two wanted to acquire Star Theory but Berry and Mavor did not like the terms of the deal, so Take-Two instead established Intercept Games and offered all Star Theory staff a position there, while Berry and Mavor encouraged the staff to stay with Star Theory. By February about twelve of the 30 staff had moved to Take-Two, and "Kerbal" contract was pulled from them by Take-Two. The remaining staff had planned to prepare prototypes and have material ready to present to publishers at the March 2020 Game Developers Conference, but because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the conference and others like it were closed down. Star Theory Games was shut down on March 4, 2020 as a result; some of the staff ended up at Take-Two to join the former staff.


Battle of Port Gamble

The Battle of Port Gamble was an isolated engagement between the United States and the Tlingit. It occurred during, but was not a part of, the Yakima War. Though a minor incident, it is historically notable for the first U.S. Navy battle death in the Pacific Ocean.
Background.
The Haida of British Columbia and Alaska and others had, since time immemorial, periodically conducted raiding expeditions against the Coast Salish peoples of the Puget Sound, who were used as a source for slave labor. Northwest Coast Native maritime technology was unsurpassed among First Nations peoples and raiding parties would travel in large dugout canoes at distances of up to a thousand miles. The largest of these canoes could hold 100 warriors and their equipment. These raids continued even after the demarcation of the border between the United States and Canada, then controlled by the United Kingdom.
Conflict.
In November 1856 a Tlingit party, consisting of approximately 100 warriors and their accompanying families, entered Puget Sound in a fleet of canoes, in what was then the Washington Territory. When the force approached the town of Steilacoom, residents alerted the U.S. Army garrison at Fort Steilacoom who, in turn, sent word to the nearby U.S. Navy gunboat . However, before USS "Massachusetts" could arrive the Haida had already withdrawn north.
On November 20 the Tlingit approached the logging community of Port Gamble, near which was located the Port Gamble Band of S’Klallam Indians some of the members of which worked at the nearby sawmill. Josiah Keller, superintendent of the mill, sounded the mill's whistle prompting the community to evacuate to a blockhouse that had been previously constructed for this eventuality. USS "Massachusetts" arrived at Port Gamble soon thereafter and, finding that the Haida party had landed and camped at the edge of town, placed a force of 18 armed sailors ashore. The skipper of USS "Massachusetts", Commander Samuel Swartwout, twice sent messengers to the Tlingit chiefs with offers to tow them to Victoria, but each offer was rebuffed. The next morning, Swartwout began shelling the Haida camp with the deck guns of the "Massachusetts", inflicting heavy casualties on the party before they managed to retreat to the forest. During the Haida withdrawal, small arms fire was exchanged between the war party and USS "Massachusetts"' sailors, resulting in the death of coxswain Gustavus Engelbrecht, the only American casualty in the battle and the first U.S. Navy battle death in the Pacific. The Haida having abandoned the field, the landing party from USS "Massachusetts" proceeded to destroy the beached Haida canoes and burn their provisions.
Two days later the surviving Haida surrendered. The Tlingit prisoners were issued a ration of bread and molasses and given 24 hours to bury their dead, after which they were taken aboard USS "Massachusetts" with the intention of deporting them to British Columbia. When "USS Massachusetts" arrived in Victoria, however, British Columbia governor James Douglas objected to the landing of the Haida in the colony. In a dispatch sent to colonial secretary Henry Labouchère, Douglas described Swartwout's reaction,
Swartwout and Douglas eventually reached a compromise: the Tlingit were provisioned with food and new canoes, then dropped-off at the edge of Russian America.
Aftermath.
With increased policing of the Canada–United States border, Northern incursions into Washington steadily dropped in the years following the Battle of Port Gamble. Later incidents involving the Haida and United States tribes occurred in 1859 when Suquamish warriors repelled a Haida landing on the western shore of Bainbridge Island; a confrontation between the Snohomish and Tlingit in August 1860.


History of the LGBT community in Seattle

Recorded history of the LGBT community in Seattle begins with the Washington Sodomy Law of 1893. In the 1920s and 1930s there were several establishments in Seattle which were open to homosexuals. The Double Header, opened in 1934, may have been the oldest continuously operating gay bar in the United States until it closed in December 2015. On 19 November 1958, an injunction instructed the city police not to question customers of gay bars unless there was a "good cause" in connection with an actual investigation. In the 1960s, Seattle came to be seen as providing an accepting environment, and an increasing number of gay and lesbians were drawn to the city. In 1967 University of Washington's Professor Nick Heer founded the "Dorian Society", the first group in Seattle to support gay rights.
Seattle's LGBT community is the second largest in the United States after San Francisco with 12.9% of the city identifying as LGBT. The Capitol Hill neighborhood in particular is considered by many the "center of gay life" in Seattle, with gay-friendly businesses and nightlife, and a resource center.
Past.
The Washington Sodomy Law was adopted in 1893, and in the same year, a King County court sentenced Charles Wesley to seven years at hard labor for "intent to know" Eddie Kalberg, "a male person".
Bars, cabarets, clubs, and dancefloors.
In the 1920s and 1930s, early establishments open to homosexuals were concentrated in areas of ill repute. Pioneer Square, also known as "Skid Road" or "Fairyville," with its bars, clubs, and cabarets probably was the center of early public gay life in Seattle. "The Casino", opened in 1930 on the corner of Washington Street and 2nd Avenue, was known as "the only place on the West Coast that was open and free for gay people", and where same-sex dancing was allowed. "The Double Header" above "The Casino", opened in 1934, was possibly the oldest continuously operating gay bar in the United States until it closed at the end of December 2015. "The Spinning Wheel" on Union Street and 2nd Avenue, was a cabaret featuring female impersonators. Both were open to both gay and straight clientele during the 1930s. The Greyhound bus depot, Volunteer Park on Capitol Hill, and the restrooms in the University Plaza Hotel and at the University of Washington were also known as meeting spots for gay men.
The "Garden of Allah" was the most popular homosexual Seattle cabaret in the 1940s and 1950s. Regular vaudeville and drag shows were held there with singers dressed in drag. It was a hotspot in the post war period with service-persons, but in the 1960s the military made most gay establishments in Seattle off-limits. In the 1960s and 1970s new gay Seattle hotspots such as the "Mocambo", the "Golden Horseshoe" and the "Golden Crown" opened. In the 1970s vaudeville had changed and Seattle began the trend of courts, public drag clubs "with 'emperors' and 'empresses' where "lip –synching would remove the need for singing talent and open the way to any man who could dance, quip, or even just costume. Performances would change, with ever-more flamboyant costuming, more energetic and choreographed dancing and even laser shows."
In the 1950s and 1960s, Seattle's dance clubs served as important points for the gay community to meet and strategize, which according to Gary Atkins, author of "Gay Seattle. Stories of Exile and Belonging", may be likened to the African-Americans who used churches to organize during the civil rights movement.
During the 1950s, when anti-sodomy laws were still in effect in the United States, gay bars, clubs and bathhouses became scrutinized. Owners of such establishments would frequently bribe law enforcement to ensure their survival as well as prevent harassment of their mostly gay clientele and escape legal consequences themselves. Seattle city officials believed that the city was not doing enough to enforce laws discriminating against homosexuality and feared that eventually it would be as openly acceptable as in cities such as San Francisco. As a result of the political upheaval regarding Seattle gay bars, the Armed Forces Disciplinary Control Board sent fourteen gay establishments letters threatening to bar them from military personnel. In 1966, the Seattle police chief suggested restrictions on gay bars such as withholding their liquor licenses.
The Dorian Society.
In 1965 group of openly gay men were contacted by Rev. Mineo Katagiri to talk with religious leaders in the city. The first radio interview with openly gay men was broadcast on KRAB radio by members of that group. The Dorian Society was formed in 1967. The book "Gay Seattle" goes into detail about this group.
The Dorian Society founded in 1967 by Nick Heer, a professor at the University of Washington was the first group in Seattle to support gay rights and which published a newsletter about current issues and events in the gay community. The name was a reference to the Doric Hellenic warriors of Ancient Greece who considered homosexuality glamorous and the society was modelled on New Zealand's Dorian Society. Their mission was to create a more respectable image of the Seattle homosexual. They also wanted the reform the Seattle sodomy laws. In response to their efforts a Seattle Times headline stated on September 21, 1966, "Tolerant Reputation: Seattle homosexual problem reported to be 'out of hand."' This article stated the Seattle police wanted to suppress the LBGT community, partially by removing liquor licenses at gay bars. In May 1967 "The Daily of the University of Washington" did a series on the gay community, which for the first time represented the community in a more positive light. Much of this positivity had to with the vigilant PR and work of the Dorian Society.
Singer v. Hara.
On September 20, 1971, John Singer, later known as Faygele ben Miriam, and fellow activist Paul Barwick applied for a marriage license at the King County Administration Building in Seattle, not being keen on actually getting married but wanting "to make a point about having the same rights as heterosexuals." Their request was refused by then-county auditor (and current County Assessor) Lloyd Hara. They were among the first same-sex couples in the United States to apply for a marriage license, causing a flurry of media coverage and leading to a lawsuit, "Singer v. Hara", which ended in 1974 with a unanimous rejection by the Washington State Court of Appeals.
Pride Week.
From June 24 to June 30, 1974, Seattle's lesbians and gays celebrated the city's first Gay Pride Week. It was the first event in the region in which the gay community as a whole came out of its collective closet. On June 28, 1974, the Gay Community Center at 1726 16th Avenue E held a grand opening. On June 29, 1974, a Saturday, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported that about 200 attended a picnic at Occidental Park in Pioneer Square. Entertainment included music and a "Gayrilla theater." Banners from the stage read "Proud to be lesbian, Proud to be gay." In the afternoon, activities moved to Volunteer Park and included roller-skating and a sing along at the top of the Volunteer Park Water Tower. That evening, a street dance was held in Occidental Park that featured music by Blue Moon and Sue Isaacs. On June 30, 1974, Gay Pride Week concluded with a "Gay-In" at the Seattle Center that featured "zany dress, general frivolity, carousing and a circle dance around the main International fountain." Since 2011, Seattle Gay Pride Parade and Festival has drawn more than 350,000 people annually.
Present.
Today, sodomy laws have been repealed by the Supreme Court, and Seattle has generally become more affirming of LGBT people. More recently, gay bars and clubs have enjoyed a central prominence for community organizing. In 1987 Life Long AIDS Alliance created the "Jars in Bars" program that allows community volunteers to engage in education outreach regarding AIDS and enables patrons of Capitol Hill bars to donate to their cause. The Seattle mayor and other city officials have become more receptive to the gay community.
Hate crimes.
Despite the general atmosphere of tolerance towards the LGBT community in Seattle, there have been instances of homophobic hate crimes, particularly in Capitol Hill and in open public spaces such as Volunteer Park. In one case, in January 2009, eleven gay bars and clubs in Seattle were sent letters threatening ricin attacks.
Health issues.
In the later 1990s and early 2000s media announced a dangerous sense of malaise and complacency in the gay community generally over safe-sex practices. AIDS was becoming more "normalized", risky sexual practices were increasing and gonorrhea, syphilis and chlamydia cases all rose. A combination of effectiveness in anti-retroviral therapies and increase in use of intravenous drugs influenced a rise in sexually transmitted infections (STI). In early 1999, King County Public Health reported an "alarming" increase in sexually transmitted infections amongst men who have sex with men. The "watershed moment" occurred in 2003 when King County Public Health released a report saying that STI had increased in gay/bisexual men by 40% over the past year.
In an article, Michael Brown notes that the geography is intertwined with politics. Seattle's sexual playgrounds were all geographically concentrated and were open at times that other establishments weren't. Seattle's preventative efforts may also have been part of the issue.
In the beginning there was a lot of denial that Seattle would get hit by the AIDS virus but the community quickly organized and many activist say now that Seattle's gay community has one of the strongest HIV/AIDS networks.
The first person to publicly be diagnosed with AIDS in Seattle was James Flanigan. This diagnosis became somewhat of a wake up call for the rest of the gay community. In October 1983 men were writing the Seattle Gay News telling the community to wake up and start to protect themselves. Seattle's ACT UP chapter also started organizing protests and doing work to get funding for AIDS care and research. In 1983 and 1984 the Chicken Soup Brigade (today part of the Life Long AIDS Alliance) was created by Josh Joshua. Chicken Soup became the backbone of the gay community with groups of volunteers cooking and caring for those who were ill with HIV.
Seattle's most major HIV focused organization is likely Life Long AIDS Alliance . Life Long organizes services for people living with AIDS and is simultaneously active in the LGBT community by holding support groups and awareness events such as Gay Bingo. Shanti/Seattle was created to train volunteers to understand the emotional stages of HIV/AIDS.
Another key organization is the Dunshee House which was originally born from Seattle's first gay awareness group, the Dorian Society. Dunshee House organizes all levels and types of support groups for HIV seropositive people. Also, Bailey Boushay house is an AIDS hospice care center run through Virginia Mason Hospital.


Bray Island

Bray Island is one of the Canadian Arctic islands located in Nunavut, Canada along the southern coast of Baffin Island. It is located in Foxe Basin, at 69°16'N 77°00'W, and has an area of .
Bray Island was the home of FOX-A, a Distant Early Warning Line and now a North Warning System site.


Kiillinnguyaq

Kiillinnguyaq, formerly the Kent Peninsula, is a large Arctic peninsula, almost totally surrounded by water, in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut. Were it not for a isthmus at the southeast corner it would be a long island parallel to the coast. From the isthmus it extends westward into the Coronation Gulf. To the south, Melville Sound separates it from the mainland. To the north is Dease Strait and then Victoria Island. To the west is Coronation Gulf and to the east, Queen Maud Gulf. Cape Flinders marks the western tip of the peninsula, Cape Franklin is at the northwestern point, and Hiiqtinniq, formerly Cape Alexander marks the northeastern point.
Historically, the Umingmuktogmiut subgroup of the Copper Inuit had a permanent community at Umingmuktog on the peninsula's western coast. A landmark for early explorers was Cape Turnagain or Point Turanagain, located about northeast of Cape Flinders, near Cape Franklin at about . In 1821, John Franklin reached the point from the west, at the most northerly point of the disastrous Coppermine expedition and then turned back. In 1838, Thomas Simpson nearly reached the same point, but was blocked by ice and had to walk east. In 1839, the coast was clear of ice and Simpson followed the entire coast eastward.


Charles G. DeWitt

Charles Gerrit DeWitt (November 7, 1789 – April 12, 1839) was an American lawyer and politician from the U.S. state of New York. He served as a member of the United States House of Representatives and as United States Chargé d'Affaires to Guatemala.
Early life.
DeWitt was born in Kingston, New York. He studied law and began the practice of law in Kingston. He was a clerk in the Navy Department and published a newspaper, "The Ulster Sentinel", beginning in 1826.
Political career.
He represented New York's 7th district as a Jacksonian in the 21st Congress, serving from March 4, 1829 to March 3, 1831. After leaving Congress he resumed the practice of law. On March 22, 1831, he was appointed by Secretary of the Treasury Samuel D. Ingham as one of three Commissioners of Insolvency for the Southern District of New York. He was appointed United States Chargé d'Affaires to Guatemala in 1833, and served in that position until 1839.
DeWitt committed suicide on board a steamboat in Newburgh, New York on April 12, 1839, and is interred in the Dutch Reformed Cemetery in Hurley, New York.
Family life.
DeWitt's father Gerrit DeWitt was a miller, and his grandfather Charles DeWitt was a delegate to the Continental Congress. His great-nephew Henry Richard DeWitt was a New York state assemblyman.


William Wells (soldier)

William Wells (c. 1770 – 15 August 1812), also known as Apekonit ("Carrot top"), was the son-in-law of Chief Little Turtle of the Miami. He fought for the Miami in the Northwest Indian War. During the course of that war, he became a United States Army officer, and also served in the War of 1812.
Apekonit of the Miami.
Wells was born at Jacob's Creek, Pennsylvania, in 1770. He was the son of Samuel Wells, a captain in the Virginia militia during the American Revolutionary War. The family moved to Louisville, Kentucky, in 1779 and settled on Beargrass Creek when William was nine and, shortly after, his mother died. After Miami warriors ambushed settlers evacuating Squire Boone's station in 1782, Wells' father was killed in a second ambush the following day, and young Wells went to live with the family of William Pope. Two years later in 1784, he and three other boys were taken captive by an Eel River Miami and Delaware raiding party and taken to Indiana. Wells was 13 years old at the time.
Wells was adopted by a chief named Gaviahate ("Porcupine"), and raised in the village of Kenapakomoko (Snakefish Town) on the Eel River, six miles north from Logansport in northern Indiana. His Miami name was "Apekonit" (carrot), perhaps in reference to his red hair. He seems to have adapted to Miami life quite well and accompanied war parties – perhaps even serving to decoy flatboats along the Ohio River.
Wells was located and visited by his brother Cary around 1788 or 1789. He visited his family in Louisville but remained with the Miami, perhaps because he had married a Wea woman and had a child. His wife and daughter were later captured in a raid by General James Wilkinson in 1791 and taken to Cincinnati. Meanwhile, under the command of the great Miami war chief Little Turtle, Wells led a group of Miami sharpshooters at St. Clair's defeat in 1791, the biggest victory the Native Americans ever won against the U. S. Army. The next year, in an effort to free the Indians held hostage, Wells returned to Louisville. In Louisville his brother Sam encouraged him to travel to Cincinnati to meet with Rufus Putnam, who hired Wells to help him make a treaty with the Native Americans in Vincennes, where the hostages were freed. Putnam then hired Wells to spy on the confederated Indian councils in 1792 and 1793 along the Maumee River in northwest Ohio.
While his first wife was held captive in Cincinnati, Wells married Little Turtle's daughter Wanagapeth ("Sweet Breeze"), with whom he had four children. The children of Wells and Wanagapeth were Anne, wife of Dr. William Turner of Fort Wayne; Mary, wife of James Wolcott; Rebecca, wife of James Hackley of Fort Wayne; Jane Turner, wife of John H. Griggs; and William Wayne Wells, a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point.
On 11 September 1793, Wells arrived at Fort Jefferson with news of the Grand Council's failure, blaming the failure of the council on Alexander McKee and Simon Girty. He also brought a dire warning that a force of over 1500 warriors was ready to attack Fort Jefferson and the Legion of the United States, then camped near Fort Washington.
Wells became the equivalent of a captain in the Legion of the United States, acting as the head of an elite group of spies and interpreter and agreeing to obey the orders of General "Mad Anthony" Wayne "as far as practicable." Captain Wells led the First Sub-Legion to the battleground of St. Clair's Defeat (which he had fought in) and located several abandoned U.S. cannons that the Native Americans had buried. General Wayne ordered the Legion to bury the bones found and then build Fort Recovery on the battle site. Wells's scouts led the way when Wayne's legion marched toward the Maumee in the summer of 1794. When Native American forces under Blue Jacket attacked Fort Recovery on 30 June 1794, Wells warned of the danger and afterwards led a scouting mission that discovered British officers who had brought cannonballs and powder, not knowing that the United States had already recovered the buried cannons.
Wells was wounded a few days before the Battle of Fallen Timbers when, on a dare, he led his group of spies into a camp of 15 Delaware warriors and struck up a casual conversation. The spies fled when they were finally discovered, but Wells was shot in the hand and received fractures to his wrist. He still was able to give Wayne crucial advice about when to attack that helped secure the victory. The next year he was an interpreter for the Wabash Indians (Miami, Eel River, Wea, Piankeshaw, Kickapoo, and Kaskaskia) at the Treaty of Greenville, in which the Indian confederation ceded most of Ohio. As interpreter he stood between his father-in-law Little Turtle, who was the only chief to vigorously resist the terms imposed, and General Wayne, Wells's commander in chief. Little Turtle, who was the last to sign the treaty, requested that Wells be sent as an Indian agent to the Miami stronghold of Kekionga, now under American control and renamed Fort Wayne.
William Wells, U.S. Indian Agent.
Following the Treaty of Greenville, Chief Little Turtle asked that Wells be appointed as a US Indian Agent to the Miami. The U.S. built an agent's house in the newly renamed Fort Wayne, and William and Sweet Breeze, with their children, moved from Kentucky to resettle with the Miami. At the suggestion of General Wayne, Little Turtle and Wells traveled to Philadelphia to visit President George Washington. They were warmly received. Washington presented Little Turtle with a ceremonial sword, and Wells was given a pension of $20 a month, in compensation for his wounds at Fallen Timbers. The two traveled east again in 1797 to visit the new president, John Adams.
When Thomas Jefferson became the United States' third president, Wells requested that he establish a trading post at Fort Wayne to encourage friendly relations with the area natives. Jefferson did establish the post, but appointed John Johnston as manager. Wells was expected to implement Jefferson's Indian policy, which called for "civilizing" the Indians while, at the same time, using treaties to gain as much of their land as quickly as possible. Johnston and Wells did not work well together, and each quickly came to resent the other. Territorial Governor William Henry Harrison at first favored Wells, and appointed him a Justice of the Peace. Wells was also charged with establishing a mail route between Fort Wayne and Fort Dearborn. Well's good standing with Harrison would soon sour, however, when he sided with Little Turtle in opposition to the 1804 Treaty of Vincennes, which gave large amounts of land to the Americans for settlement. Harrison responded by accusing Wells of opposing the Quaker Agriculture missions to the Miami. Wells appealed to General James Wilkinson, but Wilkinson sided with Harrison and Johnston.
In 1805, Governor Harrison sent General John Gibson and Colonel Francis Vigo to investigate Wells and Little Turtle on suspicion of fiscal corruption and instigation of the Miami against the United States. Their report concluded that Wells "seems more attentive to the Indians than the people of the United States."
After Sweet Breeze died in 1805, William sent his daughters to live with his brother, Samuel Wells, in Kentucky. He and Little Turtle traveled to Vincennes, where they gave a "friendly disposition ... toward the government," Harrison wrote. "With Captain Wells, I have had an explanation, and have agreed to a general amnesty and act of oblivion for the past." William and Little Turtle signed Harrison's Treaty of Grouseland. In 1808, however, Wells led a group of Indian chiefs from different tribes, including Miami Chiefs Little Turtle and Richardville, to Washington, D.C. to meet directly with President Jefferson. This infuriated Secretary of War Henry Dearborn, who fired Wells and replaced him with his rival, John Johnston.
In 1809, William married his third wife, Mary Geiger, daughter of Colonel Frederick Geiger. They and Wells' four children returned to Fort Wayne, where he received a discharge from the new U.S. Indian agent John Johnston. That Autumn, the Treaty of Fort Wayne was signed. This new land deal led directly to a more militant stance on the part of Tecumseh and his brother. Wells warned the government about this new and dangerous development, but he was largely ignored in Washington, DC while earning the hatred of Tecumseh and his followers.
Wells had the support of the Miami chiefs and of Kentucky Senator John Pope and went to Washington, DC to challenge Johnston's decision. Ultimately, Well's position was left in the hands of territorial Governor William Henry Harrison who, though distrustful of Wells, sided with the Miami out of fear that they could join Tecumseh if provoked. William Wells continued to act as United States Indian Agent in Fort Wayne, and was able to keep the Miami out of Tecumseh's confederacy. He was the first to warn United States Secretary of War Henry Dearborn in 1807, of the growing movement led by Tecumseh and his brother. William's eldest brother, Colonel Samuel Wells, and his father-in-law, Frederick Geiger, were both at the Battle of Tippecanoe; Geiger was wounded in the initial attack.
Wells also established and managed a farm in Fort Wayne, which he jointly owned with his friend Jean François Hamtramck. He petitioned Congress for a tract of land at the confluence of the St. Joseph and St. Mary rivers in 1807, which was granted and signed by President Jefferson. Little Turtle died in his home in 1812, and was buried nearby.
Fort Dearborn.
In 1812, the Madison administration failed to notify the frontier that the United States was about to declare war on Great Britain. As a result, the British and Indians knew several days before the Americans that hostilities had broken out. Hundreds of Potawatomi warriors surrounded Fort Dearborn (present day Chicago) and demanded its surrender. Wells led a group of Miami Indians from Fort Wayne, Indiana, to aid the evacuation of Fort Dearborn. Among the Americans under siege at Fort Dearborn was his niece Rebekah Wells, wife of the post commander Nathan Heald. Wells' intent was to offer protection to the garrison and their families – about 96 people, about a third of which were women and children – as they abandoned the post and walked east to Fort Wayne. Negotiating with the Pottawattomi, who surrounded the fort along the Chicago River, they were allowed to leave the fort, but the destruction of whiskey and guns enraged the Pottawattomi, who then attacked once they had marched south from the fort, a massacre known as the Battle of Fort Dearborn. Nathan and Rebekah Heald were both wounded, but were taken into captivity by the Pottawattomi and eventually ransomed to the British.
Wells, who was acting as a scout in advance of the party, knew the Indians would attack and had painted his face black: a sign of bravery, a sign to the Pottawattomi that he knew their intentions, and as a sign that he knew he was going to die. As the evacuated garrison walked down the beach, Wells rode in advance to keep an eye on the Pottawattomi, and he was one of the first to fall when they attacked. The "battle" took place in the dunes along Lake Michigan about a mile south of the Chicago River, in what is now downtown Chicago. Wells was shot and killed by the Potowatamis. His opponents, although considering him a traitor to their cause, nonetheless sought to gain some of his courage by consuming his heart.
Legacy.
The following are named for William Wells:


Transylvania Mounds

Transylvania Mounds is an archaeological site in East Carroll Parish, Louisiana with components from the Coles Creek (700–1200)CE and Plaquemine/Mississippi periods (1200–1541). It is the type site for the "Transylvania Phase (1500-1680 CE)" of the Tensas Basin Plaquemine Mississippian chronology.
Description.
A large multimound site with two plazas and possibly as many as twelve mounds. The largest mound at the site was in height and was flanked on two sides by the plazas. Several of the mounds are no longer visible because intensive European farming methods have leveled them. The ones that do remain are , , , , and in height. The site underwent limited archaeological testing in the 1960s. These tests dated occupation of the site about 700–1200 CE during the Coles Creek period. Other ceramics discovered at the site were dated to 1200–1541 during the Plaquemine Mississippian period. A series of radiocarbon samples returned dates between 1048 and 1411 CE. These investigations prompted archaeologists to use the Transylvania site as the type site for the "Transylvania Phase (1500-1680 CE)" of the local Tensas Basin Plaquemine Mississippian chronology. When the site was mapped in 2000 investigators were able to identify six remaining mounds.


Field Hill

Field Hill is a steep portion of the mainline of the Canadian Pacific Railway located near Field, British Columbia. Field was created solely to accommodate the Canadian Pacific Railway's need for additional locomotives to be added to trains about to tackle both Field Hill, and the Big Hill. Here a stone roundhouse with turntable was built at what was first known simply as Third Siding. In December 1884 the CPR renamed it Field after Cyrus W. Field, a Chicago businessman who had visited recently on a special train.
Difficult grades exist in both directions from Field, east through spiral tunnels to Calgary, Alberta; and west to Revelstoke, British Columbia, through Rogers Pass and the Connaught Tunnel, and where the modern Mount Macdonald Tunnel was opened in 1989.
Following completion of the Spiral Tunnels which eliminated the Big Hill, Field remained an important place as it was still necessary to add helper (bank) engines to get trains over the steep 2.2% (116 feet to the mile, or 22 metres to the kilometre) grade of Field Hill.
Even bigger locomotives were needed and this time six massive 0-6-6-0 Mallet type (see: Whyte notation) were built (one in 1909 and five in 1911). Five were compound engines, the last one a simple engine). These were of a unique design with both pairs of cylinders together at the middle of the boiler. The design was not repeated and eventually these engines were rebuilt (1916–17) into 2-10-0s.
More powerful still were the fourteen 2-10-2s built (1919–20) for work on the mountain. These were followed in 1929 by the most powerful steam locomotives in the British Empire, twenty 2-10-4 Selkirks. A further ten were built in 1938 and a final six in 1949, the last one being 5935, the last steam locomotive built for the CPR.
Diesel-electric locomotives followed, and over the decades bigger and more powerful diesels replaced smaller ones just as was the case with the steam locomotives that had preceded them.
Even though the Spiral Tunnels eliminated the Big Hill, the mountains remained and so too did the Field Hill. The Ottertail revision of 1902 and the five-mile () long double track Connaught Tunnel of 1916 were other improvements made to the original line in British Columbia. It was not until the late 20th century when a major new project of including the Mount Macdonald Tunnel reduced the grade to a very manageable average of 0.82%, (maximum 1%) opened in December 1988.


Robert Van Rensselaer

Robert Van Rensselaer (December 16, 1740 – September 11, 1802) was Brigadier General during the American Revolutionary War, a member of the New York Provincial Congress from 1775 to 1777 and later a member of the New York State Assembly in the 1st, 2nd and 4th New York State Legislatures.
Early life.
Robert Van Rensselaer was born December 16, 1740, at Fort Crailo in Rensselaer, New York. He was the son of Johannes Van Rensselaer (1708–1793), and Engeltie "Angelica" Livingston (1698–1746/47). His older siblings were Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, the 3rd Lieutenant Governor of New York, and Catherine Van Rensselaer, who married Philip Schuyler, who eventually became a United States Senator from New York and was also a Federalist.
His paternal grandparents were Hendrick van Rensselaer (1667–1740), director of the Eastern patent of the Rensselaerswyck manor, and Catharina Van Brugh, daughter of merchant Johannes Pieterse Van Brugh (1624–1697). His paternal 2x great-grandfather was the merchant Killian Van Rensselaer, one of the original founders of the Dutch colony, New Amsterdam. His maternal grandparents were Robert Livingston the Younger and Margarita Schuyler, herself the daughter of Pieter Schuyler, the first Mayor of Albany.
Career.
On October 20, 1775, he was made colonel of the 8th Albany County Regiment of militia and on June 16, 1780, he was promoted to brigadier general of the second brigade of the Albany County militia. This brigade included the Tryon County militia. He fought at Fort Ticonderoga and at the Battle of Klock's Field.
From 1775 to 1777, he was a member of the New York Provincial Congress and a member of the New York State Assembly in 1777-78, 1778-79 and 1780-81. In 1780, Van Rensselaer negotiated a mediation with the chiefs of the Oneida Nation, Native Americans who had made an alliance with the British against the American colonists during the Revolutionary War.
Van Rensselaer was a Federalist presidential elector in 1796, and cast his votes for the eventual 2nd President of the United States, John Adams, and Thomas Pinckney, who lost the vice-presidency to Thomas Jefferson.
Personal life.
On April 23, 1765, Robert married Cornelia Rutsen (1747–1790), the daughter of Colonel Jacob Rutsen and Alida Livingston on April 23, 1765 and had the following children:
Van Rensselaer died September 11, 1802 at the Van Rensselaer Lower Manor House.
Descendants.
Through his daughter Alida, he was the grandfather of John Kintzing Kane (1795–1858), a noted Pennsylvania lawyer and judge who served as the Attorney General of Pennsylvania. Kane was the father of Elisha Kent Kane (1820–1857), the explorer, Thomas Leiper Kane (1822–1883), an attorney and abolitionist, and Elizabeth Kane (1830–1869), who married Charles Woodruff Shields (1825–1904) in 1861.