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 Old fori" Charlres 
 
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 Prepared by the Staff of the 
 
 Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County 
 
 1955
 
 MORE than two centuries ago there was an astonish- 
 ing bit of feudal France on the banks of the Mis- 
 sissippi River. It was called Fort Chartres by those who 
 chose the location near the southern extremity of the fer- 
 tile American Bottom, which extends from a point nearly 
 opposite the mouth of the Mississippi River nearly to 
 Chester. 
 
 On the Bottom there were a number of French villages 
 noted both for the military prowess of the residents and 
 for the sleepy, Old World life of these residents among 
 the Indians, with whom they were on friendly terms. 
 
 The present Fort Chartres was occupied in 1720 by 
 Philippe Francois de Renault, the French director-general 
 of mining operations, who brought with him up the river 
 for the purpose two hundred white men and five hundred 
 Santo Domingo negroes, thus introducing slavery in what 
 became Illinois. The purpose of the fort was to protect 
 against the Spaniards the servants of John Law's famous 
 Company of the Indies, whose startling scheme for curing 
 the financial ills of France was later known as the Missis- 
 sippi Bubble. Law's plan was to set up a bank to manage 
 the royal revenue and to issue notes backed by landed 
 security. In selling shares in his Company of the Indies, 
 which was to accomplish financial wonders, "large engrav- 
 ings were distributed in France, representing the arrival
 
 of the French at the Mississippi river, and savages with 
 their squaws rushing to meet the new arrivals with evi- 
 dent respect and admiration." 
 
 Promises of great dividends from mountains of gold 
 and silver, lead, copper, and quicksilver were made. 
 Shares rose rapidly and soon were selling for 20,000 
 francs. For three months the French people believed in 
 Law. Then the Mississippi Bubble burst and there was 
 sorrow in the homeland. 
 
 In the meantime the work at Fort Chartres was con- 
 tinued. Within the stockade of wood, which had earth 
 between the palisades for purposes of strength, were 
 received many wandering savages who brought their furs 
 for barter. The French residents felt secure in the pres- 
 ence of their protection. 
 
 Various expeditions were sent out against the Indians. 
 One of these went out against the Chickasaw Indians, on 
 the Arkansas River. Disaster overtook the company of 
 French soldiers, and fifteen were captured and put to 
 death with savage barbarity. 
 
 In 1753 the fort was in such bad condition that it was 
 decided to build anew, this time of stone, brought from 
 the bluff. When completed, the new structure was one 
 of the strongest forts ever built in America. 
 
 An English traveler who visited the new fort in 1765, 
 when the British were in control, told of finding walls 
 two feet two inches thick, pierced with loopholes at regu- 
 lar distances, and with two portholes for cannon in the 
 faces, and two in the flanks of each bastion. There was a 
 ditch, but this had not been completed. The entrance was 
 a handsome rustic gate. Within the fort he found the 
 houses of the commander and of the commissary, the
 
 magazine for stores, and the quarters of the soldiers. 
 There were also a powder magazine, a bunk house, and a 
 prison. 
 
 The visitor told how the bank of the Mississippi was 
 continually falling in, and so was threatening the fort. 
 In the effort to control the destructive current a sand bank 
 had been built to turn it from its course; the sand bank 
 had become an island, covered by willows. Yet it was 
 realized that the destruction of the fort was sure. 
 
 "When the fort was begun, in the year 1756," he wrote, 
 "it was a good half mile from the water side; in the year 
 1766 it was but eighty paces; eight years ago the river 
 was fordable to the island; the channel is now forty feet 
 deep." 
 
 In the year 1764 there were about forty families in the 
 village near the fort and a parish church served by a 
 Franciscan friar. In the following year, when the English 
 took possession of the country, they abandoned their 
 houses, except three or four poor families, and settled at 
 the village on the west side of the Mississippi, choosing to 
 continue under the French government. 
 
 An English visitor who saw Fort Chartres in 1766, 
 when it was still in its prime, wrote of his impressions: 
 
 "The headquarters of the English commanding officer is 
 now here, who in fact is the arbitrary governor of the 
 country. The fort is an irregular quadrangle; the side of 
 the exterior polygon is 490 feet. It is built of stone plas- 
 tered, and is only designed as a defense against the In- 
 dians, the wall being two feet two inches thick, and pierced 
 with loopholes at regular distances, and with two port- 
 holes for cannon in the face and two in the flank of each 
 bastion.
 
 "It is generally agreed that this is the most commodious 
 and best built fort in America." 
 
 In 1772 a flood washed away part of the fort, on which 
 a million dollars had been spent — a large amount for 
 that day. The garrison fled north to Kaskaskia, where 
 another fortress was built. 
 
 More than sixty years later the Illinois Gazetteer said: 
 
 "The prodigious military work is now a heap of ruins. 
 Many of the stones have been removed by the people of 
 Kaskaskia. On the whole fort is a considerable growth 
 of trees." 
 
 But the Mississippi relented in its approach to Fort 
 Chartres. A bit of the old fort still stands — the powder 
 magazine and bits of the old wall. 
 
 Fortunately, in 1778, Congress withdrew from entry or 
 sale a tract of land a mile square, including the site of the 
 fort. Thus the way was opened for the acquirement of 
 the property by Illinois, which has made of it a state park. 
 The fort is to be rebuilt in accordance with the original 
 plans, which have been discovered in France.


 
 Cy ay lord = 
 
 PAMPHLET BINDER 
 
 ^^Z Syracuse, N. Y. 
 ^ == Stocklon, Calif.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 
 
 9 0L 7 D 3 F0R F f 2 CHARTRES ON THE MISSISSIPPI RIV 
 
 3 0112 025400018