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.

Wells was born at Jacob's Creek in 1770, Pennsylvania, 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 his mother died soon after. 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 months up 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 Indians ever won against the U. S. Army. The next year, in an effort to free the Indians held hostage, Wells returned to Louisville, where his brother Sam encouraged him to meet with Rufus Putnam in Cincinnati, who hired Wells to help him make a treaty with the Indians 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.

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