BULL. 30] 



MONTOUR 



OSV 



trade at Albany. For this work, in alien- 

 ating the upper 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 nobleman, while 

 living on the Susquehanna and the Ohio, 

 became a noted interpreter and friend of 

 the English, and was known as JNIadam 

 Montour. Her sister appears to have 

 married a Miami Indian. 



Authorities regarding the Montours are 

 not always consistent and are sometimes 

 not reconcilable as to statements of ma- 

 terial facts. Madam Montour appears to 

 have been born in Canada previous to the 

 year 1684. When about 10 years of age 

 she was captured by some Iroquois war- 

 riors and adopted, i^robably l)y the Seneca, 

 for at maturity she married a Seneca 

 named Roland Montour, by whom she 

 had 4, if not 5, children, namely, Antirew, 

 Henry, Robert, Lewis, 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 death 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 province of New York. 

 About 1729 her husband, Robert, was 

 killed in battle with the Catawba, against 

 whom he was waging war. Madam Mon- 

 tour first appeared as an official interpre- 

 ter at a conference at Albany in August, 

 1711, between the delegates of the Five 

 Nations and Gov. Hunter of New York. 

 This 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 Madam Montour, 

 and she employed her great influence 

 among the Indians with such telling 

 effect against the interests of the French 

 that the French governor sought to per- 

 suade her to remove to Canada l)y the 

 offer of great compensation and valuable 

 emoluments. His efforts were unsuc- 

 cessful. Finally, in 1719, he sent her 

 sister to attemjat to prevail on her to for- 

 sake the people of her adoption and the 

 English' cause, whereupon the Connnis- 

 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 Al- 

 bany. 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 act^d also as interpreter 

 in 1727 in Philadelphia at a conference 

 between Lieut. Oov. (Jordon and his 

 council on the one hand and the several 

 chiefs and delegates of the Six Nations, 

 the "Conestogas, Gangawese, and the 

 Susquehanna Indians," on the other. 

 It is claimeil that Madam Montour was a 

 lady in manner and education, was very 

 attractive in mind ,and body, and that at 

 times she was entertained by ladies of 

 the best society of Philadelphia; but as 

 her sister was married to a Miami 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 Philadelphia treated her 

 only with considerate kindnes-s, and noth- 

 ing more. Nevertheless, 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 reason she preferred 

 the life and dress of her adopted people. 



Whatever Roland's attitude was toward 

 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 

 least two of her sons, Henry and Andrew, 

 received large grants of ' ' donation lands ' ' 

 from the government; that of the former 

 lay on the Chillisquaque, and that of the 

 latter on the Loyalsock, where Mon- 

 toursville. Pa., is now situated. 



Witham Marshe refers to INIadam Mon- 

 tour as the "celebrated Mrs Montour, a 

 French lady," who, having "lived so 

 long among the Six Nations, is become 

 almost an Indian." Referring to her 

 visits to Philadelphia, he says, " being a 

 white woman," she was there "very much 

 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 lad 5 years old, 

 the son of one of the daughters, who was 

 "one of the finest featured and limbed 

 children mine eyes ever saw, . . . his 

 cheeks were ruddy, mixed with a deli- 

 cate white, had eyes and hair of an hazel 

 colour." In 1734 Madam Montour re- 

 sided at the village of Ostonwackin, on 

 the Susquehanna, at the mouth of Loyal- 

 sock cr., on the site of the present 

 Montoursville, Lycoming co.. Pa. It 

 was sometimes called Frenchtown. In 

 1737 Conrad Weiser, while on his way 

 to Onondaga, lodged here with Madam 



