Hanna on Martin Chartier

[E.P. Grondine]

FORT ST. LOUIS - STARVED ROCK

Joutel, the companion of La Salle on his last voyage, says, in speaking
of Fort St. Louis, it stood on the south, or left bank of the Illinois River.
The Shawnee village of two hundred warriors (and perhaps six or eight
hundred souls) is located in Franquelin's map of 1684, being on the
south side of the river, behind the fort, while according to the map of 1688
it stood on the opposite, or north side of the river, near the fort.
If the present writer is correct in his reading of the colonial records of
New York, Maryland, and Pennsylvania of the latter part of the seventeenth century,
the earliest migration of the Shawnees into Pennsylvania known to history, came,
in part at least, from this Shawnee village, built under the guns of La Salle's Fort of St. Louis. Their leader certainly came from there.
......

http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin ... s&id=I2545.

This information is from numerous sources and may contain mistakes or data that is questionable or unproven to a level that some researchers may desire. It is strongly advised that researchers only use this data as a beginning resource. Errors are unintential. Corrections and additions would be appreciated.

ID: I2545
Name: Martin CHARTIER
Given Name: Martin
Surname: CHARTIER
Sex: M
Change Date: 29 OCT 2011

Note: "A passenger of the same ship, Mr. Robert Cavellier de LaSalle, would end up carrying a large liability with regards to the future of young Pierre and Martin Chartier. They both turned out to be famous wood-runners and traders.........Martin, the discoverer of the site of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvannia) may even be called the 'Greatest French explorer on his own in North America', a distinction to be shared with his half-breed son, also called Pierre.......Martin Chartier married in Maryland in 1693. His son, Pierre, did the same about 1718. They both had Shawnee wives......In the winter of 1679-80, according to Margry's, Rene's son, Martin Chartier was among LaSalle's companions when they built Fort Crevecoeur [Peoria] somewhere along the Illinois River (2000 miles from Montreal). Martin was probably with LaSalle during his first trip of 1669-1670 to Detroit and Lake Erie......From 1683-84, Martin and Pierre Chartier were fur trading a ssociates, and they had a settlement in Fort St Louis [Starved Rock], although they had no trading permit. From 1685 to 1692, Martin Chartier made the incredible trip from Montreal to Lake Michigan, then from there to the Cumberland River in Kentucky, then to the site of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, then across the Alleghenies and along the Susquehanna River to Maryland where for a time he ran his own trading post."

"Martin Chartier was a French outlaw who sought and found refuge among the Shawnee, with whom he married and raised a family. A son, Peter Chartier became a chief among them, a hunter wise in the trading ways of whites, who led them west to escape the encroachment of civilization.... Martin Chartier's only crime was that he had gone among the Shawnees 'that owed him some beaver' without the permission of the colonial authorities, 'and when he came back, the Governor put him in prison and in irons, where he continued for several months; but at last got loose, made his escape, and ever since hath used the woods.' He told it this way before the Maryland Provincial Council in 1692, at which time he resided there with his Shawnee wife. He died in 1718, master of a huge trading house and plantation on the Susquehanna River. He might have had several children, but only one son, Peter Chartier, handled the estate."

"We find that the next recorded account of a white man's passing through our county was that of Martin Chartier, the white leader of the Shawnee Indians, in the year of 1695, as they were migrating to the Ohio River from Virginia. This tribe arrived on the great East-West Trail at Alliquippa's Gap, by the Warriors' Trail."

"Martin Chartier, a trader at the mouth of the Susquehanna in 1692, died at Dekanoagah in 1718."

"The pioneer Indian traders in the territory now embraced in this county [Lancaster] were Canadian Frenchmen, who first located along the Schuylkill and Brandywine. One of the most noted of them, Martin Chartiere, married an Indian squaw. When the Shawanese came from the South and settled at Pequea Creek, he moved there and made his permanent residence a mong them. He spoke the Delaware language fluently, and acquired great influence with these Indians. The Chief James Logan was anxious to be upon good terms with him, and took especial pains to cultivate his friendship. The loan commissioners, who were the Penns' agents for the sale of their lands, gave him a large tract, extending from the mouth of Conestoga Creek several miles up the Susquehanna River. He built his trading-post, and finally settled upon the farm afterwards owned by the Stehmans, at or near where they built a saw-mill in Washington borough. He died at this place in 1708. A message announcing his death was sent to James Logan, who attended his funeral. He left all his property to his only son, Peter Chartiere, who married a Shawanese squaw."

"Colonialist scholars tell us that it was not particularly uncommon at that time to find a white man disaffected with his own society living with an Indian tribe. What was rare, however, was to find a white man leading an Indian tribe and this is precisely what both Martin Chartier and his son Peter did. The Shawnees that Martin Chartier met on the Mississippi River had been drawn there by the great French explorer, LaSalle. In 1692, Martin Chartier led a group of these Indians north to Maryland, settling at a place known as Old Town. Several years later, they moved to the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania, an area then under the official dominion of the Iroquois Indians. They then asked a local tribe, the Conestoga, to take them under their protection. In 1701, both the Conestoga and the Shawnee appeared before William Penn and received formal permission for this arrangement. Martin Chartier set up a trading house in the area and the last we hear of him is that he passed away in 1718."

"Among the first settlers [Lancaster County, Pennsylvania] were a number of French traders who had lived on the Schuylkill as early as 1690, and soon after 1700 removed to this valley. Chief among them were Peter Bezillion, Martin Chartier, Joseph Jessup and Captain James Letort. They were shrewd business men, well acquainted with the various Indian languages, and were frequently employed as agents and interpreters for the Provincial authorities. The many references to them in the Colonial records are generally in important and honorable connections......Chartier came to the Province prior to 1690 and is sometimes referred to as 'the French glover of Philadelphia.' His trading post was on the Susquehanna , near the present city of Columbia, and where he died in 1718....."

"Martin Chartier, one of the old French Indian traders, had his trading post and lived for many years adjoining the farm afterwards owned by James Patterson, the Indian trader, and also the Susquehanna Indian town, three miles below the Columbia. The Penns gave Chartier a large tract of land on Turkey Hill, in Lancaster county. Martin Chartier died in April, 1718. James Logan was at his funeral, which shows that he was held in high esteem by the Penns."

Timeline of Events:
1667 - arrived in Quebec with father, brother and sister
1668 - meets a Shawnee boy turned over to the priests at Montreal who becomes his constant companion (Wolf, his future brother-in-law)
1669 - on Louis Joliet's first expedition with his brother Pierre
1672 - on Louis Joliet's second expedition with his brother Pierre
1674 - living with the Shawnee in Illinois on the Wabash River
By 1675 - Sewatha becomes his Shawnee wife
1679 - goes with LaSalle to build Fort Crevecoeur [Peoria] on the Illinois River (with Wolf)
1683 - found trading with the Shawnee at Fort St Louis [Starved Rock] with his brother Pierre
1684 - found in Lachine, Quebec
1685 - living with Shawnee in Illinois territory
1687 - arrested in Montreal
1689 - found as a fur trade on the Cumberland River in Tennessee
1690 - stopped in a Shawnee village in eastern Tennessee
1691 - reunited on the Potomac River with old acquaintances from Fort St Louis (LeTorts, Basillons, Godin, and Dubois)
1692 - living with the Shawnee on the Potomac River in Maryland; next in Baltimore County, Maryland, was jailed in Ste Marie & Ann Arundel Counties as a French spy but escaped
1693 - traveled with Shawnee leaving Virginia to go to Ohio
1700 - found living on the Conestoga Creek in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

Birth: 1655 in St-Jean-de-Montierneuf, Poitiers, Vienne, Poitou-Charentes, France
Baptism: 1 JUN 1655 St-Jean-de-Montierneuf, Poitiers, Vienne, Poitou-Charentes, France
Death: 1718 in Dekanoagah (Indian village around current Lancaster County), Pennsylvania, USA
Note: Administration of estate granted 18 April 1718 to James Logan of Philadelphia.
Father: Rene CHARTIER b: 25 AUG 1621 in Poitiers, Vienne, Poitou-Charentes, France
Mother: Madeleine RANGER b: ABT 1625 in France
Marriage 1 Sewatha STRAIGHT-TAIL b: ABT 1660 in Ohio, USA
* Married: 1686 in Illinois, USA
Children
1. Has No Children Madeleine CHARTIER b: ABT 1678 in Illinois, USA
2. Has No Children Charles CHARTIER-CHARLEVILLE b: ABT 1680 in Illinois, USA
3. Has No Children Jean CHARTIER-CHARLEVILLE b: ABT 1686 in Illinois, USA
4. Has Children Mary CHARTIER b: 1687 in Virginia, USA
5. Has Children Pierre CHARTIER b: ABT 1690 in Tennessee, USA
6. Has No Children Jacquette CHARTIER b: 1692 in Maryland, USA

SOURCES:
1. Abbrev: Chartier Families
Title: Me Jean (Chartier) Robert, The Chartier Families (Portland, Oregon: American Section of The Chartier Family Association, 1982), . egon: American Section of The Chartier Family Association, 1982.
Page: page 46, 61
2. Abbrev: Indian Blood: Finding Your Native American Ancestor
Title: Richard L Pangburn, Indian Blood: Finding Your Native American Ances tor (Louisville, Kentucky: Butler Books, 1993), . stor. Louisville, Kentucky: Butler Books, 1993.
Page: page 127
3. Abbrev: Kernel of Greatness - Bedford County, PA
Title: Winona Garbrick, editor, The Kernel of Greatness: An Informal Bicentennial History of Bedford County (State College, Pennsylvania: Bedford County Heritage Commission, 1971), . Bicentennial History of Bedford County. State College, Pennsylvania: Bed ford County Heritage Commission, 1971.
Page: page 14
4. Abbrev: Wilderness Trail
Title: Charles Augustus Hanna, The Wilderness Trail: or The ventures and adventures of the Pennsylvania traders on the Allegheny path, 2 Volumes (New York and London: G P Putnam's Sons and Knickerbocker Press, 1911), Adventures of the Pennsylvania traders on the Allegheny path. 2 Volumes. New York and London: G P Putnam's Sons and Knickerbocker Press, 19 11.
Page: Vol I, pg 280; Vol II, p 328
5. Abbrev: Lancaster County, PA, History of
Title: Franklin Ellis and Samuel Evans, History of Lancaster County, Pennsy lvania (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Everts and Peck, 1883), . ylvania. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Everts and Peck, 1883.
Page: page 7, 15
6. Abbrev: Trail of the Huguenots
Title: G Elmore Reaman, The Trail of the Huguenots in Europe, the United St ates, South Africa and Canada (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, Inc, 1986), . th Africa and Canada, . tates, South Africa and Canada. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing C ompany, Inc, 1986.
Page: Page 283
7. Abbrev: Dictionnaire Genealogique des familles du Quebec
Title: Rene Jette, Dictionnaire Genealogique des familles du Quebec (Montreal: Les Presses de Universite de Montreal, 1983), Montreal: Les Presses de Universite de Montreal, 1983.
Page: page 235
8. Abbrev: Memorials of the Huguenots in America
Title: Ammon Stapleton, Memorials of the Huguenots in America: with special reference to the emigration to Pennsylvania (Carlisle, Pennsylvania: H uguenot Publishing, 1901), . l reference to the emigration to Pennsylvania. Carlisle, Pennsylvan ia: Huguenot Publishing, 1901.
Page: Pages 88-89
9. Abbrev: Shawnee Heritage I
Title: Don Greene and Noel Schutz, Shawnee Heritage: Shawnee Genealogy and Family History (Lulu.com: Vision ePublications, 2008), . amily History. Lulu.com: Vision ePublications, 2008.
Page: p 63
10. Abbrev: Shawnee Heritage II
Title: Don Greene, Shawnee Heritage II: Selected Lineages of Notable Shawnee (Lulu.com: Fantasy ePublications, 2008), . ee. Lulu.com: Fantasy ePublications, 2008.
Page: p 41 and 68
11. Abbrev: Indians in Pennsylvania
Title: Paul A W Wallace, Indians in Pennsylvania (Harrisburg, Pennsylva nia: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1993), . ania: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1993.
Page: p 125-128
12. Abbrev: American-Canadian Genealogist
Title: American-Canadian Genealogist, Published Quarterly - website of s ociety: http://www.acgs.org/; (New Hampshire: American Canadian Genealogical Society). ociety: http://www.acgs.org/; (New Hampshire: American Canadian Genea logical Society).
Page: Vol 19, No 2, p 61 "The Chartiers: An Indian Life"
13. Abbrev: Indian Chiefs of Pennsylvania
Title: C Hale Sipe, The Indian Chiefs of Pennsylvania (Lewisburg, Penns ylvania: Wennawoods Publishing, 1995), Pennsylvania: Wennawoods Publishing, 1995.
Page: p 109-110
14. Abbrev: Cumberland Valley, PA: 1930
Title: George P Donehoo, A History of the Cumberland Valley in Pennsylvania (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Susquehanna History Association, 1930), . a. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Susquehanna History Association, 1930.
Page: p 107-108
15. Abbrev: Memoires de la Societe Genealogique Canadienne-Francaise
Title: Memoires de la Societe Genealogique Canadienne-Francaise; (Montreal, Quebec: Societe Genealogique Canadienne-Francaise). Montreal, Quebec: Societe Genealogique Canadienne-Francaise).
Page: Vol XXX Nov 4, Oct-Nov-Dec 1979, p 293-296
16. Abbrev: Nos Sources
Title: Nos Sources, Quarterly Publication; (Joliette, Quebec, Canada: Societe de genealogie de Lanaudiere, compiler). ociete de genealogie de Lanaudiere, compiler).
Page: Vol 6, No 2, Jan-Feb-Mar 1986, p 129
17. Abbrev: Chartier Families
Title: Me Jean (Chartier) Robert, The Chartier Families (Portland, Oregon: American Section of The Chartier Family Association, 1982), . egon: American Section of The Chartier Family Association, 1982.
Page: Vol IV, The Descendants of Rene Chartier, p 6-8, 23-40
18. Abbrev: Le Baron De Saint-Castin (in French)
Title: Pierre Daviault, Le Baron De Saint-Castin (Montreal, Canada: editions De L'A. C.-F., n.d.), editions De L'A. C.-F., n.d..
Page: p 99-102
19. Abbrev: Historical Register: Notes and Queries-Interior Pennsylvania
Title: [Henry Egle], Historical Register: Notes and Queries, Historical and Genealogical, relating to Interior Pennsylvania, for the year 1884 ( Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Lane S Hart, Printer and Binder, 1884), . d Genealogical, relating to Interior Pennsylvania, for the year 1884. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Lane S Hart, Printer and Binder, 1884.
Page: Vol II, p 250-255
20. Abbrev: Genealogie Quebec
Title: François Marchi, Genealogie Quebec
(http://genealogiequebec.info / : accessed ) c.info/ : .
Page: Accessed; 3 February 2011
21. Abbrev: Fichier Origine
Title: Quebec Federation of genealogical societies, Fichier Origine
(http://www.fichierorigine.com/ : accessed ); La Federation quebecoise des societes de genealogie en partenariat avec la Federation francaise de genealogie presente le Fichier Origine (The Quebec Federation of genealogical societies in partnership with the French Federation of genealogy presents the File origin).
http://www.fichierorigine.com/
Page: Accessed; 3 February 2011
22. Abbrev: Notes & Queries Pennsylvania
Title: William H Egle, compiler, Notes and queries: Historical, biographica l and genealogical, chiefly relating to interior Pennsylvania, 1st-2d s er., v. 1-2 (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Telegraph Printing and Binding House, 1881), Historical and genealogical, chiefly relating to interior Pennsylvania, 1st-2d ser., v. 1-2. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Telegraph Printing and Binding House, 1881.
Page: Page 88
.......

Hannah:

From these villages the inhabitants moved into Maryland and Pennsylvania between the years 1692 and 1710, while others were drawn there from the remnants of the tribe
still scattered through the Ohio Valley. They began to return to the Ohio
country soon after 1725, and shortly after the middle of that century
all but a small number had again seated themselves in the land of their
ancestors...

MARTIN CHARTIER

A meeting of the Maryland Council was held at St. Mary's in Anne
Arundel County, August 16, 1692, presided over by Lionel Copley,
Governor of the Province. At this meeting the Governor produced and
read a number of letters received from Nicholas Greenberry and others.
Greenberry's letter was dated July 25th, and referred to an earlier letter
on the same subject, written to the Governor one week before. The
letters gave varying accounts of the coming of a number of strange
Indians into the Colony, who had seated themselves near the mouth of the
Susquehanna River. Greenberry states that there are seventy-two men and
one hundred women and children in the party.

After these letters were read, a Frenchman who had come into the
Province with this party of strange Indians at the head of the bay, and
had been "taken up for a spy, or party concerned with them in designs
of mischief," was ordered to be brought before the Council, and
examined, through an interpreter.

Having declared himself to have been formerly an inhabitant of
Canada, from whence he had run away and taken up his habitation with
the Indians, he was questioned by the Council and replied as follows:
He had left Canada eight years ago [1684]. His reason for leaving
Canada was, that he had once "gone away without leave of the Governor
to some Indians who owed him some beaver; and when he came back to
the town again, the Governor put him in prison, and in irons, where he
continued several months; but at last he got loose, made his escape, and
ever since has used the Woods. He had served three years in Canada as
an apprentice to a house carpenter."

When asked if he had been amongst "those Indians" during all the
eight years since he had left Canada, he replied that "He has been ever
since constantly with those Indians, chiefly at a Fort called St. Louis.
The reason why he and those Indians with him came to desert that fort
was, that "While he was with them there, it happened that about two
years since [1690?], they went away; and some time after, about August,
he resolved to follow them, and took a canoe and went after them, three
hundred leagues in length; was forty days going; hunted for his victuals
which as he got, he roasted; and found water in all places. "

In explaining how he came to find the Indians again, he stated that
he "guessed the way, and was guided by the course of the river; and
when he came to them, they made him very welcome; having also amongst
them five other Indians, called Wolf Indians (i.l., either Minsi Delawares,
or Hudson River Mohicans), which had formerly come to those thirty
Indians that left the Fort abovesaid, and invited them to come and live
among them."

He added that the party to which he belonged had with them six
Catakoy (Catogui, i.l. Cherokee?) [Choctaw? Catawba?] Indians, who were prisoners;
and that some of the Indians called him "Father. "

After the examination of two others who had been concerned in the
capture of the Frenchman, a party of Indians that had been found in the
back-woods of Anne Arundel County was brought before the Council
for examination. Being asked if the strange Indians in the Frenchman's
party were of the Naked Indians, they replied: "No, nor are they
Senecas. There are, they say, seven forts of them, one fort of Naked
Indians, and some French joined with them."

Another Frenchman was with them, who was free, was married, and had been among
them for years. The Indians added that, some two or three days before, they had
met a party of about sixteen of the Naked Indians [Catawba], going after the New
York Indians who had recently created some disturbance in the Province.
The Frenchman was placed in the custody of the sheriff of St. Mary's
County, with whom he remained a prisoner until October 29th following,
when he was released by order of the Council.

On February 15, 1693, Charles James wrote to the Governor from
Cecil County, to the effect that the supposed king of the Indians, together
with the Frenchman, had been received by Colonel Casparus Herman
and were now residing upon his Manor [Bohemia Manor, on the south
bank of the lower Elk River]. Their followers, also, had erected their
wigwams, or "fabrics," on the same lands. The Frenchman, he was
informed, had an Indian woman for his wife, and had been seen during the
winter in a coat lined with rich fur; while one of his Indian followers had
been seen naked on a bitter cold day indicating that he must belong to
the dreaded tribe of the Naked Indians.

The Frenchman had informed Colonel Herman that he had been a captain in Canada,
and for some misdemeanor had fled from that country. Colonel Herman stated that
he was a man of excellent parts, and spoke several languages. The
writer of the letter had been informed by one Robert Drury, and by
another, who had been a prisoner with the Canadian Indians after one of
their descents on the Penobscot settlements in Maine, that they suspected
this Frenchman to be none other than Monsieur (Saint) Castine,
who had led the attack on the Maine settlements. The Frenchman's
Indian wife, Drury had seen, and knew her to be the wife of Castine.
An affidavit from Drury accompanied this letter, in which these
statements were again duly set forth.'

At a meeting of the Maryland Council held on the 8th of April, 1693,
of the Shawnees of Illinois: "They have been there only since they were
drawn thither by M. de La Salle; FORMERLY THEY LIVED ON THE BORDERS OF
VIRGINIA AND THE ENGLISH COLONIES."'
..........
Governor Evans also visited another Indian town when he was at
Pequea ["gathering" spot] in 1707. This was Dekanoagah, where lived some Senequois
[Seneca or Five Nations], Shawnees, Conoys (or Piscatawese, or Ganawese[from "Kanawa"]), and Nanticokes (closely related to the Conoys). Dekanoagah, according to Governor Evans,
was on the Susquehanna River, "nine miles above Pequehan." It
almost certainly stood near the site of the present Washington Borough,
Lancaster County. HERE MARTIN CHARTIER HAD HIS TRADING POST IN 1717,
AND FOR SOME YEARS BEFORE, AFTER MOVING UP THE RIVER FROM
PEQUEHAN, WHERE HIS HOUSE STOOD IN 1707.

Mr. David H. Landis, the best authority on Lancaster County Indian history,
thinks that Pequehan village may have been at ... [passages omitted to prevent plundering]

1707

Governor John Evans visited the Shawnee Indians of Pequehan or Pequa, on the Susquehanna River, in June, 1707. In a conference with Opessa, their chief, who had come with them from Maryland about ten years before, the chief told the Governor that his people were "happy to live in a country at peace, and not as in those parts where we formerly lived, for then, upon our return from hunting, we found our town surprised, and our women and children taken prisoners by our enemies."
........
"In his account of this visit to Pequea, the Governor states that while he was at that village "several of the Shawnee Indians from the southward came to settle here, and were admitted to so do by Opessah, with the Governor's consent; at the same time an Indian from a Shawnee town near Carolina came in, and gave an account that 450 of the Flat Head (Catawba or Creek) Indians had besieged them, and that in all probability the same was taken. BEZALLION (a Trader, who acted as interpreter) informed the Governor that THE SHAWNEES OF CAROLINA, HE WAS TOLD, HAD KILLED SEVERAL CHRISTIANS; WHEREUPON THE GOVERNMENT OF THAT PROVINCE HAD RAISED THE SAID FLAT HEAD INDIANS, AND JOINED SOME CHRISTIANS TO THEM, BESIEGED, AND HAVE TAKEN, AS IT IS THOUGHT, THE SAID SHAWNEE TOWN."