Elizabeth Catherine Montour

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Elizabeth Catherine Montour, better known as Madame Montour (1667 or 1684? - circa 1753), was born to a Native American mother and a French Canadian father. She was married at least twice and had three to five children. She was a Native American leader in what became Lycoming County, Pennsylvania in the United States. Her village, known as Otstuagy or Ostonwakin, was at the important confluence of Loyalsock Creek with the West Branch Susquehanna River, near the modern borough of Montoursville, which was named in her honor.^[1] She is best known as a valued translator for the colonial governments of New York and Pennsylvania.

[edit] Childhood

Much is uncertain about Madame Montour's life, including her given name. It seems likely that she was born Elizabeth Catherine Couc in New France (modern Quebec, Canada) to Marie Miteçamegçkçe, the Algonquin wife of Pierre Couc, a French fur trader. If she was this Elizabeth, she was born in 1667 near Trois-Rivières, in what now is Quebec, Canada.^[2][3]

Other sources agree that she was born in New France to an Algonquin mother and French father, but give her birth year as 1684. This date is based on accounts of her being kidnapped as a ten year old in 1694 by the Iroquois.^[4][5]

There is some dispute about her parentage. In 1744 Madame Montour claimed to have been the daughter of a French colonial governor, which is not verified by any existing official records, and that she was kidnapped by the Iroquois after her father was killed in a battle with them.^[4] Other historical accounts state that she was kidnapped by "anti-French raiders" in 1695 when she was already a married woman.^[2]

There is agreement that Elizabeth traveled with her parents and spent part of her youth at Fort Mackinac and Fort Detroit in what is now Michigan.^[3]

[edit] First marriage

Elizabeth acquired the Montour surname when she married a Seneca brave named, Roland Montour. He appears to have been the father of some of her children, but little is known about him, not even details of his death. By this point in her life, Madame Montour, was living in New York in the area of the Genessee River.

[edit] Interpreter for colonial governments and Indian tribes

It is believed that she traveled to the Albany area in 1709 with her brother, Louis, where he served as an interpreter. Her brother was killed and she was employed by New York Governor Robert Hunter to take his place.

She was called to Albany in 1719 and worked as an interpreter for the English colonies from that time on. In 1727 she was an interpreter at a council in Philadelphia. Her work was so valued by the authorities that she was paid the same as a man.^[5]

[edit] Second marriage

Although no date is recorded, Madame Montour married her second husband, an Oneida chief named Carondowanna. Madame Montour and Carondowanna then migrated to Otstuagy, now Montoursville, Pennsylvania. Her second husband was killed in the Carolinas in a battle with the Catawba in the spring of 1729. From the time of her second husband's death, until her death in the late 1740s, Madame Montour was recognized as a great leader of her people in the West Branch Susquehanna River Valley.^[1]

[edit] A Native American leader

Otstuagy - Madame Montour's Pennsylvania Village
Map of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania showing the location of Madame Montour's village of Otstuagy
Location	Montoursville, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Nearest city	Williamsport, Pennsylvania

Madame Montour's village, Ostuagy, became a vitally important location during the settlement of what is now Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. It was located at the mouth of Loyalsock Creek on the West Branch Susquehanna River, an important stopping point for the Moravian missionaries who were spreading the gospel throughout the wilderness of Pennsylvania during the 1740s. Count Zinzendorf, a missionary being guided by Conrad Weiser with the permission of Chief Shikellamy, came to Ostuagy in 1742. Madame Montour was known to be a friend of the British. She welcomed the white men who were beginning to migrate into the West Branch Susquehanna River Valley. Despite the fact that there is no evidence whether she could read or write, Madame Montour was able to speak German, French, English, as well as several Native languages, and she translated from one to another.^[3] She also had a great amount of influence upon the various Indian tribes which were feeling the pressure of colonial expansion. Madame Montour remained loyal to the British despite several attempts by the French to bring her over to their side. Historians note this as remarkable, due to the fact the that British colonial government sometimes went as long as a year before paying her for her services.

[edit] Accomplishments of her children

Madame Mountour's village was located here at the mouth of Loyalsock Creek on the West Branch Susquehanna River

Elizabeth Catherine Montour was the mother of three very successful children. A son, Louis, served as an interpreter during the French and Indian War. He was killed during that war. Her daughter, Margaret, later to be known as "French Margaret" went on to become the leader of "French Margaret's Town" an Indian settlement at the mouth of Lycoming Creek just a few miles up the West Branch Susquehanna River from Madame Montour's own village. Another son, Andrew, took over leadership of Otstuagy upon his mother's death in the late 1740s. Andrew inherited his mother’s gift for languages. His linguistic skills included French, English, Lenape, Shawnee, and the Iroquoian languages. Comfortable with both Native Americans and Europeans, he made a good living as a translator for both settlers and local tribes alike. When Count Zinzendorf met Montour in 1742 he wrote that Montour looked "decidedly European, and had his face not been encircled with a broad band of paint we would have thought he was one." He also served as an interpreter with Conrad Weiser and Chief Shikellamy. He was granted 880 acres (3.6 km²) of land by the Province of Pennsylvania in the Montoursville area. He later was appointed as a captain in George Washington's Army at Fort Necessity during the French and Indian War. Andrew Montour left Montoursville at some point and moved to what now is Juniata County before finally, settling on Mountour's Island in the Allegheny River near what now is Pittsburgh.^[1][4]

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b c} *Meginness, John Franklin [1892]. History of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania: including its aboriginal history; the colonial and revolutionary periods; early settlement and subsequent growth; organization and civil administration; the legal and medical professions; internal improvement; past and present history of Williamsport; manufacturing and lumber interests; religious, educational, and social development; geology and agriculture; military record; sketches of boroughs, townships, and villages; portraits and biographies of pioneers and representative citizens, etc. etc.", 1st Edition, Chicago, IL: Brown, Runk & Co.. ISBN 0-7884-0428-8. Retrieved on 2007-03-07. “(Note: ISBN refers to Heritage Books July 1996 reprint. URL is to a scan of the 1892 version with some OCR typos).” 
2. ^ ^{a b} William A. Hunter. COUC, ELIZABETH? (La Chenette, Techenet; Montour). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Retrieved on 2007-03-09.
3. ^ ^{a b c} Robin Van Auken. 'Madam' Catherine Montour. Williamsport Sun Gazette. Retrieved on 2007-03-07.
4. ^ ^{a b c} [1939] A Picture of Lycoming County (PDF), The Lycoming County Unit of the Pennsylvania Writers Project of the Work Projects Administration, First edition, The Commissioners of Lycoming County Pennsylvania. Retrieved on 2007-03-07. 
5. ^ ^{a b} Donehoo, Dr. George P. [1928] (1999). A History of the Indian Villages and Place Names in Pennsylvania (PDF), Second Reprint Edition, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania: Wennawoods Publishing, 290. ISBN 1-889037-11-7. Retrieved on 2007-03-07. “ISBN refers to a 1999 reprint edition, URL is for the Susquehanna River Basin Commission's web page of Native American Place names, quoting and citing the book”