08/31/2026
R E A L P R O O F ------> 1 MILLION DOLLAR --->> ILLINOIS https://thesaucierfamily.weebly.com/francois-saucier.html In 1751 came Chevalier de McCarty, an Irishman by descent and a Major of Engineers. He built the new stone Fort Chartres, said to have cost a million dollars. It was finished in 1756. ---------> Up to 1800 Kaskaskia had not greatly changed in character of population or in the number of inhabitants. In that year Governor Reynolds says there were but seven or eight English families that had settled there. There were then only about 3,000 persons other than Indians in the whole Territory of Illinois, of whom the French and their slaves were the large majority. After that date the population began to increase rapidly and by 1810 numbered 12,282. Kaskaskia became a centre of much influence. The American Bottom, as the strip of alluvial ground extending from Kaskaskia to Cahokia was called, was recognized as a most fertile soil. Immigrants came to Kaskaskia and halted, while they looked around for a place to locate and make a permanent home. The French element looked on with dismay when they saw the machinery of government beginning to turn. for they reasoned that this would breed taxation. They thought that a people which installed Judges, a sheriff, a jail, and lawyers must be looking for litigation; that a community which needed two doctors must expect to be an unhealthy one.
The picture above is an early drawing of Fort de Chartres that was designed and built by Francois Saucier in the Illinois territory.
