Philip Francois Renault

Philip Francois Renault, a French explorer, left his native Picardy, France in 1719 for the Illinois Country. He had been appointed by the Company of the West which acquired the French East India Company and became the Company of the Indies, also in 1719. The Company was formed by the French for the exploitation of their American possessions. Along the way, he picked up 500 African slaves in Santo Domingo, for use in the mines he expected to develop, these were the first slaves of their kind brought to Illinois or Missouri.

In 1723 Renault was granted “in freehold, in order to make his establishment upon the mines” of a tract of land a league and a half in a width by six in depth on the “Little Marameig” in Upper Louisiana (Missouri); another tract of two leagues “at the mine called the mine of Lamothe;” another of one league in front of Pimeteau on the river Illinois; and “one league fronting on the Mississippi, at the place called the Great Marsh, adjoining on one side to the Illinois Indians, settled near Fort de Chartres, with a depth of two leagues, this place being the situation which has been granted to him for the raising of provisions, and to enable him to furnish then to all the settlements he shall make upon the mines.” Upon the latter grant Renault expected to grow the food for his mining operations in the rich, black soil of what would become known as the American Bottom. He founded a settlement, St Philippe, in the southern part of present day Monroe County, Illinois, about three miles north along the river from Fort de Chartres. His efforts in Illinois to locate exploitable metals were largely futile, in Missouri he fared slightly better, and he is credited with operating the first viable lead mines in Missouri's Lead Belt. He returned to France in 1749, passing his interests in the area on to others. Later attempts, in the early 19th century, by persons claiming to represent his estate to reclaim lands he was granted did not meet with success. [Combined History of Randolph, Monroe and Perry Counties, Illinois, J. L. McDonough & Co., Philadelphia, 1883]

Interestingly, the descendants of Renault's brothers, both of whom emigrated to the East Coast of the U.S., have changed the spelling of their name, to reflect an English spelling of their names' French pronunciation so that in 1888, it was spelled Reno.

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* [http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=980CE0DB1138E533A25752C1A9629C94699FD7CF N.Y. Times article from 1888 dealing with his heirs' lawsuit in .pdf]