[067] Portland was one of many towns laid out along the Mississippi by speculators who hoped that important cities would arise on the sites chosen. This particular venture was undertaken by a company organized in Cincinnati in 1819; but inhabitants failed to come, and the buildings erected by the promoters fell into ruins. The site was near the present town of Chester; an Illinois state penitentiary now stands on the spot.--ED. [068] It is stated by Mr. Schultz that Fort Chartres, which was originally built one-fourth of a mile from the river, was undermined in 1808. Vol. 2, p. 37.--JAMES. _Comment by Ed._ For Kaskaskia, Prairie du Rocher, Cahokia, and Fort Chartres, see André Michaux's _Travels_, in our volume iii, notes 132, 133, 135, 136. Prairie du Pont, one mile south of Cahokia, grew up about a water-mill built in 1754 on a creek of that name, by missionaries of St. Sulpice. Harrisonville dates from the era of American domination. It was laid out in 1808, and named for William Henry Harrison, the governor of Indiana Territory, which then included Illinois. It was, in early days, the county town. [069] Ample information on the subject of land titles, is contained in Stoddart's Sketches of Louisiana, pages 243-267.--JAMES. [070] The statement here is not accurate. Marquette's descent of the Mississippi was just one hundred and fifty years earlier, and the French settlements in Illinois date from the beginning of the eighteenth century; while Ste. Geneviève, the first in Missouri, was not established before 1732.--ED. [071] Herculaneum, laid out in 1808, was another of the now extinct river towns. It was thirty miles below St. Louis, and was at one time seat of Jefferson County.--ED. [072] A _township_ is a square, whose sides (limited by true meridians and parallels to the equator) are each 6 miles in length: area 36 square miles, or _sections_, each containing 640 acres. Each township contains 23,040 acres. A _quarter-section_ is a square whose sides (bounded by meridians and parallels), are each half a mile, and contain 160 acres. The corners of each section are distinctly marked by the United States' deputy-surveyors. The _sections_ are numbered from 1 to 36, beginning at the N. E. corner of the township, and going from right to left, to the N. W. corner; and then returning from left to right to the east boundary of the township, and so on. The act of February 22. 1817, authorizes the sale, in _half quarter_ sections, or (80 acres) of the sections 2, 5, 20, 23, 30, 33, of each township. The subdivision of the quarter section is made by true meridians.