Handbook of American Indians north of Mexico / edited by Frederick Webb Hodge.

Date:
1907-1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Handbook of American Indians north of Mexico / edited by Frederick Webb Hodge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    955/1000 (page 937)
    trade at Albany. For this work, in alien- atinji the ujiper nations from the French trade and cause, he was killed in 1709 by order of the Marquis de Vaudreuil, gov- ernor of Canada, who boasted that, had Montour been taken alive, he would have had him hanged. One of the two daugh- ters of the French nol)leman, while living on tbe Susquehanna and the Ohio, became a noted interpreter and friend of the English, and was known as Madam Montour. Her sister appears to have married a iMiami Indian. Authorities regarding the IMontoure are not always consistent and are sometimes not reconcilable as to statements of ma- terial facts. iMadam jMontour ap]»ears to have been born in Canada previous to the year 1684. When about 10 years of age she was captured by some InKpiois war- riors and adojAed, probably 1 >y the Seneca, for at maturity she married a Seneca named Roland Montour, by whom she had 4, if not 5, children, namely, Andrew, Henry, Robert, J^ewis, and Margaret, the last becoming the wife of Katarioniecha, who lived in the neighborhood of Sha- mokin. Pa. Roland had a brother called “Stuttering John” and a sister variously known as Catherine, Kate, Catrina, and Catreen. After the deatli of Roland, Madam Montour married the noted Oneida chief named Carondowanen, or “Big Tree,” who later took the name Robert Hunter in honor of the royal gov- ernor of the jirovince of New York. About 1729 ber husband, Robert, was killed in battle with the Catawba, against whom he was waging war. Madam IMon- tour lirst appeared as an official interpre- ter at a conference at Albany in August, 1711, between the delegates of tbe Five Nations and Cov. blunter of New York. Tins was probably the occasion on which her husband adopted the name Robert Hunter. The wanton murder of her brother Andrew by Vaudreuil was bitterly resented by jViadam Montour, and she enq)loyed her great influence among the Indians with such telling effect against the interests of the French that the French governor sought to per- suade ber to remove to Canada by the offer of great compensation and valuable emoluments. His efforts were unsuc- cessful. Finally, in 1719, he sent her sister to attempt to prevail on her to for- sake the people of her adoption and the English cause, whereupon the Commis- sioners of Indian Affairs, learning of the overtures of the French governor, appre- ciating the value of her services to the province, and fearing the effect of her possible disaffection, invited her to .\1- l)any. It was then discovered that for a year she had not received her stipulated pay, so it was agreed by the commission- ers that she should thereafter receive a “man’s pay,” and she was satisfied. Madam Montour acted also as interpreter in 1727 in Philadelj)hia at a conference between Lieut. Cov. (iordon and his council on the one hand and the several chiefs and delegates of the Si-v Nations, the “Conestogas, Cangawese, ami the Susquehanna Indians,” on the other. It is claimed that Ma<lam Montour w’as a lady in manner and e<lucation, was very attractive in mind .and body, and that at times she was entertained l>y ladies of the best society of Philadelpliia; but as her sister was married to a ^liami war- rior, and she herself was twice married to Indians of the Five Nations, it is prob- able that her refinement and education were not so marked as claimed, and that the ladies of Philadt'lphia treated her only with considerate kindness, and noth- ing more. Nevertheles^s, from the testi- mony of those who saw and knew her, but contrary to the statement of Lord Cornbury, who knew her brother, it seems almost certain that she was a French-Canadian without any admixture of Indian blood in her veins, and that for some unaccountable i-eason she jtreferred the life and dress of her adopted jieople. Whatever Roland’s attitude wastoward the proprietary government, that of his wife was always uniformly friendly, and after her second marriage it was even more cordial. Such was the loyalty of the family of Madam Montour that at lea.st two of her .ions, Henry and Andrew, received large grants of “donation lands” from the government; that of the former lay on the Chillisqua(]ue, and that of the latter on the Loyalsock, where Mon- toursville. Pa., is now situated. 'Witham Marshe refers to iUadam iUon- tour as the “ celebrated Mi-s iMontour, a French lady,” who, having “lived so long among the Six Nations, is become almost an Indian.” Referring to ber visits to Philadelphia, he says, “ being a whitewoman,” shewasthere “verymuch caressed by the gentlewomen of that city, with whom she used to stay for some time.” Marshe, who visited her house, saw two of her daughters, who were the wives of war chiefs, and a la?I o years old, the son of one of the daughters, wbo was “one of the finest featured and limbed cbildren mine eyes ever saw, . . . bis cheeks were ruddy, mix(‘d with a deli- cate white, had eyes and hair of an hazel colour.” In 1764 iSIadam Montour re- side<l at the village of ()stonwackin, on the Susiiuehanna, at the mouth of Loyal- sock cr., on tlu‘ site of the present Montoursville, Lycoming co.. Pa. It was sometimes called Fnmehtown. In 1767 Conrad Weiser, while on his way to Onondaga, lodged here with ^ladam