Catharine Montour, also known as Queen Catharine (died after 1791), was a prominent Iroquois leader living in Queanettquaga, a Seneca village of Sheaquaga, [1] informally called Catharine's Town, in western New York. She has often been confused with Elizabeth "Madame" Montour, her aunt or grandmother who was a noted interpreter and adviser to the governor, and with "Queen Esther" Montour, usually described as her sister. [2] Several places in western New York were later named in her honor, after most of the Iroquois had been forced to cede their lands and were driven out of the region.
Catharine was likely born in Pennsylvania or New York as the daughter of Marguerite Fafard Turpin, an Iroquois-French métis also known as Margaret Montour or "French Margaret." Margaret was either the daughter or niece of Madame Montour. Catharine's father was Katarioniecha, also known as Peter Quebec. He was described as a Caughnawaga Mohawk, referring to converted Catholic Mohawk who lived in the Jesuit mission village now known as Kahnawake. It was founded south of Montreal across the St. Lawrence River in Quebec in the early 18th century. [3]
Catharine had a sister named Mary (or Molly), and two brothers: Andrew Montour and Nicholas Quebec. [3] (Her brother Andrew should not be confused with Andrew Montour (c. 1720–1772), who was the son of Elizabeth "Madame" Montour and was probably Catharine's uncle. He was a well-known interpreter in the backcountry of Pennsylvania and Virginia.)
Catharine Montour married a Seneca chief named Telenemut, also known as Thomas Hudson. She and her husband lived in the Finger Lakes region at Queanettquaga, a Seneca town that became known as Catharine's Town. After the village was destroyed by rebel continental forces during the 1779 Sullivan Expedition in the American Revolutionary War, Montour relocated with other Seneca to Niagara. This area was held by the British at the time, although it later became part of New York state. [4] When Schuyler County in western New York was settled by European Americans following the revolution and United States independence, they named several places after Catharine Montour.
Historical references to Catharine in her later years are few. In 1791, Catharine's sister Mary sought permission to live at the Moravian mission village of New Salem, near present Milan, Ohio. Missionary David Zeisberger recorded at the time that Catharine Montour was still living near Niagara. [5]
"Catharine Montour" was the name of a fictional leading character of a 1917 silent film, The Spirit of '76. She was portrayed as a mistress of King George of Great Britain and an adventuress in America.
Several places in New York were named after Montour in the period of European-American settlement following the American Revolution, all in Schuyler County.
Catharine is a town in Schuyler County, New York, United States. The population was 1,656 at the 2020 census. The town is one of two in the county named after Catherine Montour, a Native American interpreter and leader in the area. The Town of Catharine is in the southeastern part of the county and is north of Elmira.
Montour is a town in Schuyler County, New York, United States. The population was 2,323 at the 2020 census. The town is one of two towns in the county named after Catherine Montour.
Montour Falls is a village located in Schuyler County, New York, United States. The population was 2,714 at the time of the 2020 census. A waterfall at the end of West Main Street gives the village its name. The name "Montour" is derived from Queen Catharine Montour, a prominent Native American woman of Seneca Indian heritage who lived at the village site in the 18th century.
Montoursville is a borough in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. The 2020 census reported its population as 4,745. It forms part of the Williamsport, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area. The Williamsport Regional Airport is in Montoursville.
Robert Livingston the Younger, sometimes known as Robert Livingston Jr., or The Nephew was a wealthy merchant and political figure in colonial Albany, New York.
Thayendanegea or Joseph Brant was a Mohawk military and political leader, based in present-day New York and, later, Brantford, in what is today Ontario, who was closely associated with Great Britain during and after the American Revolution. Perhaps the best known Native American of his generation, he met many of the most significant American and British people of the age, including both United States President George Washington and King George III of Great Britain.
The 1779 Sullivan Expedition was a United States military campaign during the American Revolutionary War, lasting from June to October 1779, against the four British-allied nations of the Iroquois. The campaign was ordered by George Washington in response to Iroquois and Loyalist attacks on the Wyoming Valley, German Flatts, and Cherry Valley. The campaign had the aim of "the total destruction and devastation of their settlements." The Continental Army carried out a scorched-earth campaign in the territory of the Iroquois Confederacy in what is now central New York.
Lieutenant-Colonel John Butler was a British Indian Department officer, landowner and merchant. During the American Revolutionary War, he was a prominent Loyalist who commanded Butler's Rangers. Born in New London, Connecticut, he moved to New York with his family, where he learned several Iroquoian languages and worked as an interpreter in the fur trade. He was well-prepared to work with the Mohawk and other Iroquois nations who became allies of the British during the rebellion.
The Seneca are a group of Indigenous Iroquoian-speaking people who historically lived south of Lake Ontario, one of the five Great Lakes in North America. Their nation was the farthest to the west within the Six Nations or Iroquois League (Haudenosaunee) in New York before the American Revolution. For this reason, they are called “The Keepers of the Western Door.”
The Phelps and Gorham Purchase was the sale, in 1788, of a portion of a large tract of land in western New York State owned by the Seneca nation of the Iroquois Confederacy to a syndicate of land developers led by Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham. The larger tract of land is generally known as the "Genesee tract" and roughly encompasses all that portion of New York State west of Seneca Lake, consisting of about 6,000,000 acres (24,000 km2).
George Croghan was an Irish-born fur trader in the Ohio Country of North America who became a key early figure in the region. In 1746 he was appointed to the Onondaga Council, the governing body of the Iroquois, and remained so until he was banished from the frontier in 1777 during the American Revolutionary War. Emigrating from Ireland to Pennsylvania in 1741, he had become an important trader by going to the villages of Indigenous Peoples, learning their languages and customs, and working on the frontier where previously mostly French had been trading. During and after King George's War of the 1740s, he helped negotiate new treaties and alliances for the British with Native Americans.
Montour may refer to:
Molly Brant, also known as Mary Brant, Konwatsi'tsiaienni, and Degonwadonti, was a Mohawk leader in British New York and Upper Canada in the era of the American Revolution. Living in the Province of New York, she was the consort of Sir William Johnson, the British Superintendent of Indian Affairs, with whom she had eight children. Joseph Brant, who became a Mohawk leader and war chief, was her younger brother.
Shamokin was a multi-ethnic Native American trading village on the Susquehanna River, located partially within the limits of the modern cities of Sunbury and Shamokin Dam, Pennsylvania. It should not be confused with present-day Shamokin, Pennsylvania, located to the east. The village was the focus of missionary efforts, and then was the staging area for raids on English settlements in Pennsylvania during the French and Indian War. It was burned and abandoned by the Lenape in May, 1756. A few months later, Fort Augusta was constructed on the site of the village.
Andrew Montour, also known as Sattelihu, Eghnisara, and Henry, was an important mixed interpreter and negotiator in the Virginia and Pennsylvania backcountry in the latter half of the 18th century. He was of Oneida and Algonquin ancestry, with a French grandfather. Historian James Merrell estimated his birth year as 1720. Likely born in his mother's village of Otstonwakin, he later led the village in the 18th century before settling further west.
Catherine's Town was a Seneca village, named informally for a prominent Seneca woman, Catherine Montour. It was located at the south end of Seneca Lake, near present-day Watkins Glen in what is now Schuyler County, New York.
Madame Montour was an interpreter, diplomat, and local leader of Algonquin and French Canadian ancestry. Although she was well known, her contemporaries usually referred to her only as "Madame" or "Mrs." Montour. She may have been Isabelle Couc, a mixed born in 1667, or perhaps Isabelle Couc's niece, who was born around 1685 and whose given name is uncertain.
Shikellamy, also spelled Shickellamy and also known as Swatana, was an Oneida chief and overseer for the Iroquois confederacy. In his position as chief and overseer, Shikellamy served as a supervisor for the Six Nations, overseeing the Shawnee and Lenape tribes in central Pennsylvania along the Susquehanna River and protecting the southern border of the Iroquois Confederacy. While his birth date is not known, his first recorded historical appearance was in Philadelphia in 1728. In 1728 he was living in a Shawnee village in Pennsylvania near modern Milton, and moved in 1742 to the village of Shamokin, modern day Sunbury, at the confluence of the West and North Branches of the Susquehanna. Shikellamy was an important figure in the early history of the Province of Pennsylvania and served as a go-between for the colonial government in Philadelphia and the Iroquois chiefs in Onondaga. He welcomed Conrad Weiser to Shamokin and served as Weiser's guide on his journeys into the frontier of Pennsylvania and New York.
The Montour family is a family of Native-American and French descent that was prominent in colonial New York and Pennsylvania before and during the American Revolution. Because of the Iroquois practice of reckoning descent through the female line, the family is known as "Montour" after the matriarch.
Louis-Thomas Chabert de Joncaire, also known as Sononchiez by the Iroquois, was a French army officer and interpreter for New France who worked with the Iroquois tribes during the French and Indian Wars in the early 18th century. He helped negotiate the Great Peace of Montreal in 1701 and founded Fort Niagara in 1720.