23 Facts About Martin Chartier

Martin Chartier was a French-Canadian explorer and trader, carpenter and glove maker.

Martin Chartier lived much of his life amongst the Shawnee Native Americans in what is the United States.

Martin Chartier assisted in the construction of Fort Miami and Fort Crevecoeur.

Martin Chartier was born in 1655 in St-Jean-de-Montierneuf, Poitiers, Vienne, Poitou-Charentes, France.

Some sources state that the young Martin Chartier spent the next several years in Montreal learning to make gloves, but there is evidence that he was apprenticed to a carpenter.

In 1674, Martin Chartier accompanied Louis Jolliet to the Illinois Territory, where he became acquainted with the Pekowi Shawnee, who lived at that time on the Wabash River.

Martin Chartier assisted in the construction of Le Griffon, a seven-cannon, 45-ton barque, on the upper Niagara River at or near Cayuga Creek.

Martin Chartier assisted in the construction of Fort Crevecoeur, which was built along the Illinois River near the present-day site of Peoria, Illinois.

Later La Salle captured a few of the mutineers on Lake Ontario, but not Martin Chartier, who followed the south shore of Lake Ontario headed for upstate New York, as a part of a second group of eight deserters, while the others, who were eventually captured, were pursuing La Salle, intending to kill him.

Martin Chartier guessed the way, and was guided by the course of the river, and found water in all places.

Martin Chartier's daughter Mary Seaworth Chartier was born in Frederick County, Virginia in 1687.

In 1689, Martin Chartier established a trading post at French Lick on the Cumberland River in Middle Tennessee, near what developed as the present-day site of Nashville, Tennessee.

Martin Chartier's son Peter Chartier was born here in 1690.

Peter Martin Chartier later became a leader of the Pekowi Shawnee and campaigned against the sale of alcohol in indigenous communities in Pennsylvania.

In spring 1692, Martin Chartier led a group of 192 Shawnee and an unknown number of Susquehannock Indians east to Frederick County, Maryland on the Potomac River.

Martin Chartier maintained a good relationship with the Provincial Government, and at times served as an interpreter and unofficial liaison between the government and the Indians.

Martin Chartier escaped persecution only after agreeing to assist in the arrest of Nicole Godin.

Martin Chartier died before 1712, when Anne Le Tort was named executrix of his estate.

Martin Chartier is known to have acted as interpreter for the Shawnee at conferences held with the English at Conestoga in 1711 and 1717.

In 1873, Martin Chartier's grave was accidentally discovered by John Stehman, who then owned the property.

Martin Chartier was evidently buried in traditional Shawnee style, with the addition of his helmet, a cutlass, and several small cannon balls.

Historian Stephen Warren says that Martin Chartier played a crucial role in facilitating communications between the Shawnee and the French colonizers with whom they frequently interacted:.

Martin Chartier traded canoeing the interior of the continent for French explorers for a life as a partisan of a Shawnee band that refused to choose sides in imperial quests for power.