Near this location, a government trading post called Fort Madison was established in 1808 and garrisoned in the spring of 1809 by a company of the First United States Infantry Regiment for the use of the Sac, Fox, Ioway, and Des Moines River Sioux. Created under Article 9 of the 1804 Treaty of St. Louis as part of the payment for lands ceded by the Sac and Fox in present-day Illinois and Missouri, the post provided manufactured goods in exchange for furs, bees' wax, tallow, feathers, and lead. It became extremely popular among the majority of these Nations and ranked as the third highest grossing factory in the government system between 1808 and 1811. The factory was moved from St. Louis to this location to make it more convenient for Native peoples and to counter British influence following the Chesapeake Affair. During the War of 1812, Fort Madison was attacked primarily by Ho-Chunk, Menominee, and a few disgruntled Sac, while most of the people who traded at the factory did not attack it and were greatly inconvenienced by its destruction in 1812. In March and April 1812, Ho-Chunk war parties seeking vengeance for losses at the Battle of Tippecanoe harassed the garrison in a loose siege that killed two soldiers and may have caused about a half dozen Ho-Chunk casualties. In September 1812, during Tecumseh's theater-wide offensive, Fort Madison endured an intense siege in which one soldier was killed and Native casualties may have reached a dozen. During that fighting, the trading post was burned, and for its final year Fort Madison served as a forward intelligence-gathering outpost. In 1813, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, and Sac attacked again on the 8th and 16th, resulting in the deaths of six soldiers. At the same time, rotten meat and moldy flour were being shipped to the post, and by early November 1813 the garrison was reduced to rotten pork and potatoes. With winter approaching and no food left, First Lieutenant Thomas Hamilton ordered the fort burned and his men to sail for St. Louis.