Martin Chartier - PLAQUE
Manor Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Died 1718. Noted Indian trader and interpreter in early Pennsylvania and Maryland. Frenchman from Canada who resided at Fort St. Louis of the Sieur de La Salle in present Illinois, 1684-1690. A leader thence of the Shawnee Indians to Maryland, 1692, and to Susquehanna River at Pequea Creek, now Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, 1697, agent in William Penn's treaties with the Indians of the Susquehanna, settler here in later years at the site of Washington Borough on a 300 acre tract granted to him by Penn, father by his Shawnee wife of PETER CHARTIER the Indian Trader and Interpreter.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Martin Chartier was a French adventurer from Canada who had served at La Salle's Fort St. Louis in the Illinois country before leading a band of Shawnee eastward, first to Maryland and then, by 1697, to the Susquehanna at Pequea Creek. Settling on a tract granted him by William Penn, he became one of early Pennsylvania's most important Indian traders and interpreters, and an agent in Penn's treaties with the Susquehanna nations. His son Peter, born of his Shawnee wife, carried on the trade after him.
Why it matters
Traders and interpreters like Chartier were the essential go-betweens of colonial America, whose bilingual, bicultural lives made the fur trade and the treaty system possible.
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Related people
- · Martin Chartier
- · Peter Chartier
- · William Penn
- · Sieur de La Salle
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Great Minqua Path
Manor Township, PA · est. 1951
This was the great artery of the mid-17th-century fur trade, the chief trail by which the Minqua—also known as the Susquehannock—carried beaver pelts eastward to the European settlements along the Delaware. The trade was so lucrative that the Swedes, Dutch, and English fought one another to control it. The path traced a route of immense commercial and political importance in the early contest for the region.
Great Minquas Path
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