BULL. 301 



MONTOWES^ 



9S0 



Catherine was an educated and refined 

 woman and was admitted into good 

 society in Piiiladelphia is, under the cir- 

 cumstances, most improbable. On Sept. 

 3, 1779, Sulhvan's army destroyed 

 Catherine's Town. Catherine, with sev- 

 eral friends, lived in 1791 "over the lake 

 not far from Niagara." Her son Amochol 

 joined the Moravian church and was 

 living at New Salem, or Petquotting, in 

 1788. John and Roland Montour were 

 her brothers, the latter being the son-in- 

 law of Sagaiengwaraton, a leading Seneca 

 chief. Both Roland and John were 

 famous war chiefs in the border warfare 

 against the p]nglish colonies. 



Mary Montour, a sister of Catherine, 

 Esther, and Andrew, was the wife of 

 John Cook, another noted Seneca chief 

 named Kanaghragait, sometimes also 

 called " White Mingo," who lived on the 

 Allegheny and the Ohio, and died in 1 790 

 at Ft Wayne. From Zeisberger's Diary 

 (ii, 149, 188.5) the curious information is 

 obtained that INlary was a " Mohawk In- 

 dian woman," and that Mohawk was 

 " her mother tongue." It is also stated 

 that when a child Mary was bajitized in 

 Philadeljihia l:)y a Catholic priest. In 

 1791, on the removal of the Moravian 

 mission from New Salem to Canada, 

 among the new converts who accom]ia- 

 nied the congregation was Mary, " a sis- 

 ter of the former Andrew Montour," and 

 "a living polyglot of the tongues of the 

 West, speaking the English, French, 

 Mohawk, Wyandot [Huron], Ottawa, 

 Chippewa, Shawnese, and Delaware 

 languages. ' ' 



Andrew Montour, wliose Indian name 

 was Sattelihu, the son of INIadam INIontour 

 by her first husband, was for many years 

 in the employ of the proprietary govern- 

 ment of Pennsylvania as an assistant 

 interpreter. In 1745 he accompanied 

 Weiser and Shikellimy, the viceroy of 

 the Six Nations on the Susquehanna, 

 on a mission to Onondaga, the federal 

 capital of the confederation. In 1748 

 Andrew was presented to the council of 

 the proprietary government by Weiser as 

 a person especially qualified to act as an 

 interpreter or messenger. At this time 

 he was prominent among the Delawares. 

 Hitherto Weiser and Andrew were held 

 asunder by jealousy, because of Andrew's 

 efforts to secure the position of interpre- 

 ter for Virginia in her negotiations with 

 the Six Nations. But Weiser now needed 

 Andrew to secure to the jjroprietary gov- 

 ernment the alliance of the Ohio Indians, 

 and so sunk all personal differences. In 

 introducing him to the council Weiser 

 stated that he had employed Andrew fre- 

 quently on matters of great moment and 

 importance, and that he had found him 

 "faithful, knowing, and prudent." At 



this time Andrew was fully remunerated 

 for what he had already done for Weiser. 

 Deputies from the Miami were expected 

 at Philadelphia, but instead they went to 

 Lancaster. Andrew Montour was the 

 interpreter for the western Indians and 

 Weiser for the Six Nations. Scaroyady, 

 a noted Oneida chief, living on the Ohio, 



'and exercising for the Six Nations juris- 

 diction over the western tribes similar to 

 that exercised by Shikellimy over those 

 in Pennsylvania, was to have been the 

 speaker on this occasion, but he was in- 

 capacitated by a fall, and so Andrew was 

 chosen speaker for the western Indians. 

 He enjoyed remarkable influence and 

 power over the Ohio tril)es, and by hia 

 work at the various conferences of the 

 colonies with them came into enviable 

 prominence in the province. His grow- 

 ing power and influence, about 1750, at- 

 tained such weight that the management 

 of Indian affairs by Pennsylvania was 

 seriously embarrassed. In 1752 (tov. 

 Hamilton commissioned him to go and 

 reside on Cumberland cr., over the Blue 

 hills, on unpurchased lands, to prevent 

 others from settling or trading there. In 

 the following year the French authorities 

 set a price of $500 on his head. In 1755 

 he was still on his grant, living 10 m. 

 X. w. of Carlisle, Pa., and was captain, 

 later major, of a company of Indians in 

 the English service. In 1762 he was 

 the King's interjireter to the united 

 nations. Andrew served as an inter- 

 preter for the Delawares at Shamokin, 

 where Conrad Weiser held a conference 

 with the several tribes in that region for 

 the purpose of bringing about peace be- 

 tween the southern confederation of In- 

 dians and the Six Nations and their allies. 

 He also served as interpreter to the gover- 

 nor of Virginia at several important trea- 

 ties. After receiving his grants from the 

 government he was regarded as a man of 

 great wealth, but in his public acts he 

 found other means of swelling his fortune. 

 Consult Bliss, Zeisberger's Diary, i-ii, 

 1885; Darlington, Gist's Journals," 1893; 

 Freeze in Pa. Mag., in, 1879; Marshe in 

 Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 1st s., vii, 1801; 



■ N. Y. Doc. Col. Hist., v, 65, 1855; Walton, 

 Conrad Wei.«er, 1900. (.i. n. b. h.) 



Montowese ('little god,' diminutive 

 from mariito, 'spirit.' — Trumbull). Ap- 

 plied by Ruttenber (Tribes Hudson R., 82, 

 1872), to Indians on Connecticutr. s. w. of 

 Middletown, Middlesex CO., Conn., though 

 De Forest (Hist. Inds. Conn., 55, 1853), 

 his authority, does not give the name 

 as that of atribe, but says: ".Southwest 

 of the princijial seat of the Wangunks 

 [Middletown] a large extent of country 

 was held by a son of Sowheag [chief of 

 the Mattabesec, q. v.] named Monto- 

 wese." This area probably lay partly in 



