The first Fort Crawford was built in 1816 on the site now occupied by the Villa Louis. After a decade of Mississippi River flooding, the U.S. Army relocated Fort Crawford to this site and constructed the new fort from locally quarried limestone. Built from 1829 to 1834, it included housing for eight companies of soldiers and their officers, as well as separate surgeon's quarters and a military hospital. Soldiers built the fort while on fatigue duty but were often called away to settle Indian disputes. Important Indian treaties were negotiated at the first and second Fort Crawford in 1825, 1829, and 1830. Here, on August 27, 1832, Sauk leader Black Hawk surrendered, ending the Black Hawk War. Colonel Zachary Taylor, Colonel Willoughby Morgan, Lieutenant Jefferson Davis, and Doctor William Beaumont served at Fort Crawford in the 1830s. The Fort Crawford Hospital was partially reconstructed by WPA workers in honor of Doctor William Beaumont, renowned for his pioneer experiments in human digestion.