Richardville Reserve was name for Jean-Baptiste (John B.) Richardville (1761-1841), whose Miami name was Peshewa (Wild Cat), Miami Principal Chief from 1815-1841.  Richardville was a metis of French and Miami ancestry.  His father, Joseph Drouet de Richardville, was a French officer and trader.  His mother, Tacumwah, was a Miami tribal leader and trader, the sister of a chief.  Richardville owned a trading post in northern Indiana, extensive land holdings (including his mother’s profitable portage at Fort Wayne), and homes at Fort Wayne and the Forks of the Wabash (Huntington).  He was rumored to be the richest Indian in the United States in the 1820's.  Wild Cat Creek was named for him.

During treaty negotiations, land transfers called reserves often were provided for chiefs or their families to promote private ownership and encourage cooperation.  At the 1818 Treaty of St. Mary’s, five sections for Keensquatakqua (Long Hair), Aronzon (Twilight), Peconbequa (A Woman Striking), Aughquamauda (Difficulty), and Miaghuqua (Noon), all children of Richardville.  The boundaries were fixed when the Richardville Reserve was survey in 1823.

When the first white families arrived, in 1823, just ahead of the surveyors, they found Potawatomi living in log cabins and wigwams.  A trading post was nearby.  In 1828, a treaty with the Eel River Indians of Thorntown was negotiated at the village.  The following year, the Richardvilles sold the land to Samuel McGeorge, a trader and farmer who raised race horses.  The Potawatomi are thought to have left when their tribe was removed in 1838.