Early 1800s

Captain Asa Fairfield Mariner's Compass

The compass, set inside a wood case, originally belonged to Captain Asa Fairfield. Fairfield was raised in Maine and commanded a ship during the War of 1812. After moving to Fort Wayne with his brothers in 1835, he became a civic leader, farmer and landowner. He was the first person to operate a canal boat, named the "Indiana," on the Wabash and Erie Canal. Much of the South Wayne area was for-merly part of a farm owned by Asa Fairfield. Pictured here in a daguerreotype image is Captain Fairfield and his wife Olive Stone Fairfield, who was a cousin of Hugh McCulloch.