Note 78 — Western Indians

Catharine's Town—She-o-qua-ga.—An Indian village located on the high ground a little south of the present village of Havana. The town was on both sides of the inlet and about three miles from the head of the lake. This was the residence of the famous Catharine Montour, by many writers incorrectly confounded with Madame Montour, and by others with Queen Esther, of Wyoming notoriety.

Madame Montour, a noted personage in the Colonial history of Pennsylvania, resided at one time at the present site of Montoursville, in Pennsylvania, on the west branch of the Susquehanna, afterwards on an island near Shamokin; and about 1749, when very aged and blind, removed to the vicinity of Lake Erie, where she probably died previous to 1752. She had several sons and one daughter, all distinguished characters in Pennsylvania annals.

Queen Esther, notorious as the "fiend of Wyoming," "who followed in the train of the victorious army, ransacking the heaps of slain, and with arms covered with gore barbarously murdering the wounded who in vain supplicated for their lives." She was living at Sheshequin six miles below Tioga point in 1772, and removed about that date six miles north, and founded a new town, afterward known as Queen Esther's town; this was afterward destroyed by Col. Hartley in 1778, when she probably removed to Chemung. She had a sister Mary, and one son, who lost his life a short time previous to the massacre of Wyoming, which was probably the exciting cause of her fury at that place. She afterward settled on the point south of Union Springs, in Cayuga County, and died there of old age.

Catharine Montour was young enough to be the grand daughter of Madame Montour. At the time of Sullivan's campaign and for some years previous she had resided at her village near present Havana. She had two sons, Roland and John, and a daughter Belle. Her sons were conspicuous characters at Cherry Valley, Wyoming and in Sullivan's campaign, where John was wounded in the battle of Newtown. Roland married the daughter of Siangorochti, the chief sachem of the Senecas; both sons were known as captains in the many Indian raids against the border settlements. Catharine's reputed husband was Edward Pollard, a sutler at Fort Niagara, who was also the father of the famous Seneca warrior, Captain Pollard, by another Indian wife. There was at this time another Capt. John Montour near Fort Pitt, who accompanied Colonel Brodhead in his expedition up the Allegany, who was loyal to the American cause throughout the war. In this expedition of Col. Brodhead, the husband of Belle Montour was killed.