A company of soldiers from Fort Pitt landed at the mouth of the Great Miami on October 28, 1785, and immediately began building a fort near this site. It was named Fort Finney in honor of Major Walter Finney, who commanded the operation. The Continental Congress had commissioned Generals George Rogers Clark, Richard Butler, and Samuel Parsons to make a peace treaty with the Shawnee Indians and to mark off lands to be allotted to that tribe. This site was chosen as most convenient to the principal body of Indians and nearly an equal distance from the rapids at Louisville, the interior of Kentucky, and Limestone at Maysville. Invitations were sent to the reluctant Shawnee, who finally met in the Council House near the fort during the middle of January 1786. On January 31, 1786, the treaty with the Shawnee Nation was signed, resulting in the ultimate removal of hostile Indians from this area.
