Source:Fleming-montour-1
George T. Fleming. "Name of street recalls work of Montour: Name of local thoroughfare honors scout, guide and interpreter: Noted Mme. Montour." Pittsburgh Gazette Times, June 27, 1915, sec. 5, p. 2. Newspapers.com 85628171.
IN OLD street directories of Pittsburgh we find the lines:
Montour way, from Sixth avenue to Seventh avenue, formerly Miltenberger alley, Third Ward.
The "way" is directly in the rear of the German Evangelical Church at Sixth avenue and Smithfield street. The next block above, to Cherry way, formerly Cherry alley, is occupied by the Nixon Theater. The holdings of the German church congregation extend on Smithfield street to Strawberry way, formerly Strawberry alley, and on Montour way to the same terminal. There are stores on the Smithfield street front and small dwellings in their rear fronting on the way with a court between.
These buildings occupy the grant or the "Geschenkter Platz" of the Penn heirs in 1787. That is to say, the ground given the congregation by the Penns, in the same manner as that given Trinity Protestant Episcopal Church and the First Presbyterian Church congregations for church purposes.
On the Seventh avenue end on the upper side is the telephone building of the Bell company where once stood the First English Evangelical Lutheran Church, the Smithfield Methodist Episcopal Church extends to the alley or way, and the large warehouse on Smithfield street also.
Old Church Recalled.
On the block bounded by the two ways and Sixth avenue, or the Nixon Block, there once stood two dwellings and the Second United Presbyterian Church, once known as Dr. Prestley's church.
The building at the corner shown in the picture today was the home of Dr. Thomas J. Gallagher for many years and at his death passed into possession of the Young Men's Republican Tariff Club, which occupied it until the Theater came, some 12 or 15 years later. It was a three-story brick.
There is little doubt that few people think how the name Montour came to be applied to this small thoroughfare. County folks residing in the southwest part of Allegheny County are familiar with Montour Run which has been on the map for over a century and a half. Then we see the cars carrying coal from that section marked "Montour Railway" and the traveling public or that portion using the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad know of Montour Junction.
Those who are "up" on Pennsylvania geography know of Montour county, the county seat Danville, and Postal clerks know that Montourville, Pa., is in Lycoming county, the county seat of which is Williamsport.
Few, perhaps, consider that these designations commemorate the same family that our local names do, and that our short obscure and narrow thoroughfare known as Montour way is intentionally or otherwise in its designation keeping alive the name of one of the most noted families in Pennsylvania history.
Prominent in History.
But one of the sons of Mme. Montour, Andrew, also called Capt. Henry Montour, was prominent in all the transactions about Fort Pitt and the Ohio country for many years. The name Montour awakens as little thought of its historical significance as Duquesne, equally as prominent in our street and local geography.
The late William M. Darlington of Pittsburgh, whose widow, Mary O'Hara Darlington, died last week, has given us the best history of the Montours and he has been used as authority and followed by Charles A. Hanna, Dr. Reuben Gold Thwaites and other historical writers.
We find much material relating to men and events of our colonial times in Mr. Darlington's work entitled "Christopher Gist's Journals, with Historical, Geographical and Ethnological Notes and Biographies of His Contemporaries," published in Pittsburgh in 1893.
Rather a comprehensive title, but it fully sets forth what the book contains.
Andrew Montour was contemporaneous with Gist, so also George Croghan, "King of the Traders," and later deputy agent at Fort Pitt under Sir William Johnson, his majesty's commissioner of Indian affairs in North America. Croghan's name runs through all the history of the borders of colonial times and with it Andrew or Capt. Montour, his companion, guide, scout and interpreter.
In the list of geographical names, for the Montours we must recall one long since gone, Montours Island in the Ohio, now known as Neville Island, and township.
Darlington's Account.
How the name changed and the history of this island belongs to the story of the Nevilles, interwoven with the Craigs and Gen. William Irvine. Capt. Henry Montour's grant of land in themselves furnish some story.
Charles A. Hanna is authority for the statement that Andrew and Henry Montour were the same person. However we will take Darlington's biography and note what he has to say of the family.
Andrew Montour, the eldest son of Mme. Montour, first appears as a captain of a party of Iroquois warriors marching against the Catawabas of Carolina in 1744. He fell sick on the way to the James River and was obliged to return to Shamokin, not the present Shamokin, Pa., but the Indian town on the site of Sunbury.
Mme. Montour was more noted in our early colonial history than her son. It was in 1667, that the ancestor, a French gentleman named Montour, settled in Canada. He took a Huron woman to wife, by whom he had three children—a son and two daughters.
The son lived with the Indians and was wounded in a fight with Mohawks near Lake Champlain in 1694. He deserted the French and went to the "farr Indians," the account says, that is to the Twightwees or Miamis.
He came under the displeasure of the French so greatly for his endeavors to alienate the "upper nations" of Indians from the French, that he was hunted down by troops under Lieut. Sieur de Joncaire and killed in 1709, under direct orders of the Marquis de Vaudreuil, governor of Canada, who wrote that he would have had Montour hanged had it been possible to have captured him alive.
Story of Mme. Montour.
Mme. Montour, his sister, retaining the family name, became conspicuously known. She is supposed to have been born in Canada about 1684, and when about 10 years old was captured by some Iroquois warriors and taken to their country and brought up among them. She is thought to have lived among the Oneidas, as she married a chief of that tribe named Carondwanna, who was later given the English name, Robert Hunter, in honor of the royal governor of New York from 1709–1719.
Carondwanna became famous as a war-chief and was killed in battle with the Catawbas in the Carolinas about 1729. The widow did not remarry, retaining her father's name, and she finds frequent mention as "Mrs. Montour, a French woman, wife to Carondwanna, or Robert Hunter."
The proprietaries of Pennsylvania, John and Thomas Penn, were much concerned for the death of her husband. She had been in conference at Philadelphia with Gordon in July, 1727, and in October, 1728, her husband accompanying her. She, like her brother, was early a friend of the English, and despite her French parentage.
In August, 1711, she first appeared as an interpreter at Albany, N. Y., at a conference between the sachems of the then Five Nations or Iroquois, and Gov. Hunter. It was then her husband took the governor's name. To adopt the name of a prominent white man was considered a high compliment and a bond of friendship.
The influence of Mme. Montour among the Indians was so great, and so adverse to the French, that the Canadian authorities endeavored to persuade her to withdraw from the English and remove to Canada, offering higher compensation as an inducement, but without avail until 1719, when the French governor sent her sister to prevail on her to remove within the French dominion.
French Plan Fails.
The New York authorities on receiving word of this act, and loth to lose her most valuable services, sent for her to come to Albany and made a settlement with her stipulating she should receive a man's pay from the proper officer of the Independent companies of the Province. This was done and the French checkmated.
Mme. Montour, we learn from our colonial records, lived for a while among the Miamis at the west end of Lake Erie. This was prior to 1728. In 1734 she resided at a village on the Susquehanna at the mouth of Loyalsock Creek on the west side. It had various Indian names, the best known, Oisteara, or "Rock," in the Iroquois tongue. The Pennsylvania town that arose on this site was named Montoursville in her honor. Like all Indians she was nomadic.
Conrad Weiser visited here [sic] there in March, 1737, while on a mission to Onondaga, the headquarters of the Iroquois in New York and he states that Mme. Montour treated him kindly, supplying his party with food, though she had little to spare. Weiser describes her as a "French woman by birth, of good family, but now, in mode of life, a complete Indian."
Count Linzendorf, bishop and head of the Moravian Church, with a large party visited Mme. Montour in the fall of 1742, Weiser accompanying the party. They were received with military salutes and hospitably welcomed by the madame and her son, Andrew.
The bishop preached in French to large gatherings and Mme. Montour was deeply affected and heard the truths of the gospel anew. Linzendorf visited the town subsequently.
Mme. Montour was present as interpreter at the great treaty between the Six Nations or Iroquois (the Five Nations increased by the Tuscaroras), and the provinces of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia. This was in 1744 at Lancaster, Pa.
Marshe's Journal.
Withain Marshe, who was secretary of the Maryland commissioners there, visited Mme. Montour at her cabin on this occasion. Two of her daughters accompanied her. Marshe kept a "journal" which has been preserved and he then obtained the particulars of her life. To this Mr. Darlington has had recourse.
Marshe describes her as a genteel person of good address, very polite and that she had been handsome. Her two sons-in-law and a son were then in the South fighting the Catawbas, the Iroquois again being at war with this tribe.
In 1745 Leisberger, with Weiser and some Moravian missionaries, found the madame living on the island in the Susquehanna opposite Sunbury with one daughter. She appears to have left the village at the mouth of the Loyalsock permanently. Leisberger found it deserted and in ruins in 1748.
There is no further direct account of her. She was not living in 1754. Some years prior to that she became blind, but was sufficiently vigorous to ride from Logstown, on the Ohio, to Venango, on the Allegheny at the mouth of French Creek, a distance by the path of over 60 miles. Andrew accompanied her on foot, leading her horse all the way.
Only three of her children can be identified. One of the daughters present at Lancaster in 1744 was known as "French Margaret" and was the wife of an Indian.
Another daughter is mentioned as a sister of Andrew Montour's and one of the converts at the Moravian mission at New Salem, O., in April, 1791, and it is noted that "she was a living polyglot of the tongues of the West, speaking English, French and six Indian languages."
Errors Are Found.
She was then 70 at least. Mme. Montour must have been much older than Marshe represents.
There are many errors in Mme. Montour's history commonly accepted as truth. One is that she was the daughter of a former governor of Canada. There was no governor there named Montour.
Another error is that she was living at the time of the American Revolution. A granddaughter named Catharine, who lived near the head of Seneca Lake in a town destroyed by Gen. Sullivan in 1779, seems to have been confounded with Mme. Montour, who is invariably mentioned as "Madame" or "Mrs." Montour, and never as Catharine.
Highly colored accounts were printed respecting Mme. Montour's association with the women of Philadelphia, who, evidently, owing to her intelligence and previous history, treated her with consideration and kindness. She received from the Province of Pennsylvania such presents and compensation as were usually given prominent Indian visitors.
In our "Colonial Records" we have frequent mention of her, and descriptions of those who knew her best agree that she was habited and lived like the Indians.
"Her French blood doubtless imparted a vivacity of manner to her, the like of which is to be observed to this day," comments Mr. Darlington, "among the people of mixed French and Indian ancestry in Canada and along our Northern frontier."
One Son Well Known.
Mme. Montour had also a son named Louis, of whom there is little mention, that is as compared with Andrew. Mr. Darlington devotes 20 pages of his book in reviewing the life and services of Andrew, and it is Andrew that we commemorate in the name Montour in this vicinity.
As early as 1745 we find Andrew Montour in the service of the governor of the Province of Pennsylvania in company with Conrad Weiser and the great Oneida chieftan [sic], Shikellaney. One if [sic] these missions was to urge the Iroquois to compel the Shawanese to make restitution for the robbery of Pensylvania [sic] traders about the Ohio, the marauders under the leadership of that noted scoundrel, Peter Chartiers, the half breed, incited to the acts complained of by the French.
Weiser introduced Andrew Montour to the president and council at Philadelphia as "faithful and prudent," adding that he lived among the Six Nations between the branches of the Ohio and Lake Erie."
In 1784 Montour was interpreter at a treaty in Lancaster. This was in July. In August he accompanied Weiser on his mision [sic] to Logstown. Weiser kept an accurate journal of this perilous trip, and it is to be found in I. D. Rupp's "History of Western Pennsylvania and the West." Weiser has much to say of Montour.
Montour seems first to have come into relation with Croghan at Croghan's home, then at Pennsboro, Cumberland county, in May, 1750. James Hamilton, then governor of the province, recommended Montour to the assembly as a discreet person of influence with the Indians in keeping the French from alienating them from the British, and deserving of recompense, to which the assembly assented and paid Montour 92 pounds and 15 shillings, about $450.
Indian Agitation.
The Indians wavered in the friendship and there were always negotiations under way by one nation or the other to "alienate" the tribes. The French were successful for a time until they were driven out for all time.
The Iroquois, or Six Nations, except some renegade Senecas, were ever friends of the English even during the Revolution. The Iroquois in their hostility and hatred of everything French, do not receive proper mention for their part in establishing English dominion in North America and expelling the French from their well governed and extensive possessions called by them "La Novelle [sic] France" (New France). And in this firm adherence of the Iroquois to the English interests, we must not forget Andrew Montour and his part.
Montour, with Croghan, was at Logstown in November, 1750, on a mission of trade and propitiation by gifts of Indian goods. The French, under Jean Coeur, as Croghan called Joncaire, had five canoe loads of presents up the Allegheny and the Provincial authorities had to "make good" also. The transportation of these goods to the Ohio alone cost 230 pounds.
Croghan attested Montour's worth when he wrote the Governor:
"Montour takes a great deal of pains to promote the English interests among the Indians, and has great sway among all those nations."
The same year Montour went with Croghan to the Muskingum country, trading and propitiating the Western tribes.
Some escaped traders, who had been in French prisons, brought news to them that the French had set a price on the heads of Montour and Croghan, so incensed were the French. A larger reward was offered for them alive, their scalps to be brought in if dead.
Montour Called Deserter.
Montour was called by the French, a French-Canadian deserter. He was nothing of the kind.
The son of a half-breed French-Indian woman, by an Oneida father, Montour was three-quarters Indian, half of Oneida blood and a quarter Huron.
While in the Muskingum country, Montour and Croghan fell in with Christopher Gist, then in the employ of the Ohio Company. Gist kept an accurate journal of this journey, and fulfilled his instructions given him by the committee of the Ohio Company, September 11, 1750, and for the "Honorable Robert Dinwiddie, Esquire, Governor and Commander of Virginia."
While with the Miamis, articles for a treaty of peace and alliance were entered into between this tribe and the English. Gist wrote the articles and they were "signed, sealed and delivered" on both sides as of record in our "Colonial Records" and also duly noted by Gist in his journal. The Miamis dismissed four French Indians and took down their French colors. The French Indians were Ottawas.
Gist records that "Saturday, March 7, 1757, George Croghan and the rest of our company came over the river and we got our horses and set out about 35 miles to Mad Creek." This would be somewhere in Clarke county, O. Next day they parted.
Croghan and Montour held frequent conferences while on this trip with the Western tribes who came as far East as the forks of the Ohio on trading and hunting expeditions.
The two went to the Shawanese towns at the mouth of the Sciota and south of the Kentucky side and held councils with the Shawanese. Croghan delivered his gifts valued at £100. They returned safely.
There is much more to be said of Montour. He was a valuable man and a true one.
