Old Fort Chartres
on the Mississippi River
John T. Faris
Prepared by the Staff of the
Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County
1955
One of a historical series, this pamphlet is publishedunder the direction of the governing Boards of the PublicLibrary of Fort Wayne and Allen County.
BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE SCHOOL CITY OF FORT WAYNE
- Mrs. Sadie Fulk Roehrs
- B.F. Geyer, President
- Joseph E. Kramer, Secretary
- W. Page Yarnelle, Treasurer
- Willard Shambaugh
PUBLIC LIBRARY BOARD FOR ALLEN COUNTY
The members of this Board include the members of the Board of Trustees of theSchool City of Fort Wayne (with the same officers) together with the followingcitizens chosen from Allen County outside the corporate City of Fort Wayne:
- James E. Graham
- Mrs. Glenn Henderson
- Mrs. Charles Reynolds
FOREWORD
The following publication, which narrates the fortunes ofFort Chartres in Illinois, originally appeared as chapter XII inTHE ROMANCE OF FORGOTTEN TOWNS by John T. Faris. Thepublishers, Harper & Brothers, have graciously granted permissionto reprint the chapter.
The Boards and the Staff of the Public Library of Fort Wayneand Allen County present this account with the feeling that it is animportant part of our heritage and with the hope that it will beinteresting and informative to Library patrons.
More than two centuries ago there was an astonishingbit of feudal France on the banks of the MississippiRiver. It was called Fort Chartres by those whochose the location near the southern extremity of the fertileAmerican Bottom, which extends from a point nearlyopposite the mouth of the Mississippi River nearly toChester.
On the Bottom there were a number of French villagesnoted both for the military prowess of the residents andfor the sleepy, Old World life of these residents amongthe Indians, with whom they were on friendly terms.
The present Fort Chartres was occupied in 1720 byPhilippe François de Renault, the French director-generalof mining operations, who brought with him up the riverfor the purpose two hundred white men and five hundredSanto Domingo negroes, thus introducing slavery in whatbecame Illinois. The purpose of the fort was to protectagainst the Spaniards the servants of John Law’s famousCompany of the Indies, whose startling scheme for curingthe financial ills of France was later known as the MississippiBubble. Law’s plan was to set up a bank to managethe royal revenue and to issue notes backed by landedsecur