learned that he had come to preach the gospel, the ruths of which she had almost forgotten. Zinzendorf wrote* of "Madame" Montour and her half-breed son Andrew Montour, or Sattena: "Andrew's cast of countenance is decidedly European, and had not his face been encircled with a broad band of paint, applied with bear's fat, I would certainly have taken him for one. He wore a brown broadcloth coat, a scarlet damasken lappel-waistcoat, breeches over which his shirt hung, a black Cordovan neckerchief decked with silver bugles, shoes and stockings and a hat. His ears were hung with pendants of brass and other wires plaited together like the handle of a basket. He was very cordial, but on addressing him in French he, to my surprise, replied in English. Montour brought two children to me and asked me to baptize them. very confidential with Anna [Nitschmann] and told her, among other things, that she was weary of Indian life. I was surprised at the woman's ignorance, considering she had been born and brought up a Christian.' * * * * * * * * 'Madame' She was The Count and his companions remained in their camp at French Town until October 9th, and during this time held two or three religious. services which were attended by the Montours and some of the Indians. Zinzendorf thought he "observed signs of grace in Andrew." It was expected that Shikellimy would guide the missionary party through the wilderness to Wyoming, but for some reason it was finally decided that Andrew Montour-who was "proficient in various Indian languages"-should go instead; therefore, under his guidance, the missionaries (Zinzendorf, Anna Nitschmann, John Martin Mack and Jeannette, his wife) began their journey to what Zinzendorf described, later, themselves to this effect, that whatever nation should kill him, they would at once begin war-he is held in such high esteem among them." He was with Washington at the surrender of Fort Necessity in 1754. In 1756 he acted as interpreter for the Indian Commissioners in New York, and sang war-songs before Sir William Johnson at Fort Johnson. Several times he warned the settlements of impending raids-among other services bringing word of Pontiac's outbreak. In March, 1764, he commanded an expedition of Indians and white men sent out by Sir William Johnson against the recalcitrant Delawares on the upper Susquehanna. Captain Montour's party destroyed several Indian villages-among them, Canisteo, on a branch of the Chemung River (see page 34), some forty or fifty miles north-west of Tioga Point, in what is now Steuben County, New York, This village consisted of sixty houses, and from it Montour's party took away horses, corn and implements. (See Halsey's "Old New York Frontier," page 75.) At the close of this short campaign Montour presented to Sir William Johnson at Johnson Hall a number of Indian scalps. (IV) Henry Montour, or “Enishshera,” known about 1770 as "Captain" Henry Montour, or "Mountare," described himself in the year mentioned as one of the deputies of the Six Nations. In February of that year he joined in executing to one Garrett Pendergrass, Sr., of Bedford, Pennsylvania, a deed for the land upon which Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, now stands. (V) Lewis Montour went to the Ohio River region probably about the time his sister "French Margaret" removed thither. He was there until 1753, in which year, as messenger of the Shawanese on the Ohio, he bore to the Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania a document containing an offer from those Indians to resign all their right to land east of the Ohio in liquidation of their debts to the traders. Montour, however, was reported to be a spy in the French interest. Nevertheless in 1754 he settled near Aughwick (now Shirleysburg, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania). There were then living there, under the superintendence of George Croghan, quite a number of Indians who had left the Ohio and put themselves under the protection of the Pennsylvania Government. Not long after Montour had taken up his abode at this place Conrad Weiser complained to the Government that "Lewis Montour, Andrew's brother, disturbs them [the Indians at Aughwick] often by bringing strong liquor to them. They cannot help buying and drinking it, when it is so near, and Lewis sells it very dear to them and pretends that his wife, who is an ugly Indian squaw, does it." In January, 1757, Lewis was sent by George Croghan (then Deputy Indian Agent under Sir William Johnson) to bear a message to certain Indians in New York. (1) Catharine Montour, daughter of "French Margaret," became the wife of Thomas Hutson, or Hudson, called by the Indians "Telenemut." He was a Seneca, and his brother John was head-chief of Caneadea, a Seneca village on the Genesee River, in what is now Allegany County, New York. Thomas Hudson died early-certainly prior to 1760. (He may have been the son-in-law of "French Margaret" whose death occurred in 1752, as previously noted.) He left to survive him his wife Catharine and three children, viz.: (1) Roland, (2) John and (3) Belle. Some years later-say about 1760 or 61-the widow Catharine was married to an Englishman who was then, or had been, an Indian trader, with headquarters at Niagara, and had been married to a Seneca squaw, who, having born him several children, died. (See "Transactions of the Buffalo Historical Society," 1884, Vol. III.) One of these children was named Kaoundowana (“Big Tree"), who, when he had grown up, was noted as a Seneca warrior under the name of "Captain Pollard." (See Chapters XV and XXV for further references to him.) For many years Catharine Montour was known as "Queen Catharine," and during the Indian depredations in 1755-56 several white prisoners taken by the Indians were sold to her at her home in New York. She was then living at Canisteo, previously mentioned, but sometime before its destruction by her brother Andrew she removed to a village on a beautiful flat near the present town of Havana, New York, about three miles from the southern extremity of Seneca Lake. The Indian name of this village was "Sheoquaga," but it soon became known as "Catharine's Town." (See reference to it under "French Margaret," ante.) In 1779, when it was destroyed by General Sullivan's army (see Chapter XVIII), it was a village of fifty log houses, "in general, very good, and the country near it excellent." Having been driven from this locality, Catharine Montour and her family and followers removed to the vicinity of Fort Niagara, where they continued to live for some years. Subsequently to 1788-probably in 1790 or 192 "Queen Catharine" visited Philadelphia with a delegation of Indian chiefs from New York State. She is said to have been a woman of considerable ability and intelligence and some refinement. For interesting details concerning other members of the Montour family mentioned in this noteviz. (iv) Esther, (v) Molly, (1) Roland and (2) John-see Chapter XV, post. * See Reichel's "Memorials of the Moravian Church," I: 95. "as the great Desarts of Skehantowanno, where no Christians either come or dare to come." They traveled, without doubt, over the "Warrior Path" running along the north, or left, bank of the river to the mouth of Canaswrágu (now Muncy) Creek, and thence in a straight course, almost due south, to the confluence of Warrior Run and the Susquehanna (in what is now Northumberland County). Here a lesser path branched off in a south-easterly direction through the wilderness, striking the North Branch of the Susquehanna at the mouth of Fishing Creek, near the present borough of Bloomsburg, in Columbia County, and running thence along the right bank of the river to the town of Wyoming. At that period, however, there was another Indian path, or trail (only the beginning of it is shown on Evans' map reproduced on page 191), which left the West Branch of the Susquehanna at the mouth of Muncy Creek and, running an easterly course, crossed the North Mountain range, then passed through the present township of Huntington and, at the confluence of the North Branch of the Susquehanna and Shickshinny Creek, joined the previously-mentioned trail to Wyoming.* It was over one of these two trails that Andrew Montour guided the adventurous Moravian evangelists through the primeval forests to the little Shawanese village of Wyoming at the eastern end of "Shawnee” Flats. In his "Recollections," written some twenty years later than the events recorded, missionary Mack states: "Leaving Otstonwakin, our way lay through the forest, over rocks and frightful mountains, and across streams swollen by the recent heavy rains. This was a fatiguing and dangerous journey, and on several occasions we imperiled our lives in fording the creeks, which ran with impetuous current. On the fifth day [Sunday, October 13, 1742] we reached Wyoming, and pitched our tent not far from the Shawanese town. The Disciple's [Zinzendorf] reception by the savages was unfriendly, although from the first their visits were frequent. Painted with red and black, each with a large knife in his hand, they came in crowds about the tent, again and again. He lost no time, therefore, in informing the Shawanese chief, through Andrew Montour, of the object of his mission. This the wily savage affected to regard as a mystery, and replied that such matters concerned the white man, and not the Indian. Our stock of provisions was by this time almost exhausted, and yet the Disciple [Zinzendorf] shared with the Indians what little was left. The very clothes on his own back were not spared. One shirt button after another was given away, until all were gone, and likewise his shoe-buckles, so that we were obliged to fasten his underclothes and tie his shoes with strings. For ten days we lived on boiled beans, of which we partook sparingly three times a day, as the supply was scanty." Within a few days after their arrival in Wyoming the missionary party removed their tent from the place where they had first pitched it to a spot within the limits of the Shawanese village. Mack recorded (in his journal of 1744) that at this time (October, 1742) this village consisted of "thirty or forty cabins all full of Indians, whose great noise one could hear two or three miles off." The Mohegans, who had originally settled farther up the river (see page 194), were, at the time of Zinzendorf's visit, located on the right, or north, bank of the river, about halfway between a point nearly opposite the lower or western extremity of Richard's Island (mentioned on page 52) and a small stream (later known as Brown's Brook) which flowed for some distance almost due south and emptied into the river. Of this brook only the name and the channel now remain. The stream having disappeared With reference to the country traversed by these paths, or trails, see the maps in Chapters XI and XXIII. † See Reichel's "Memorials of the Moravian Church," I: 100. |