The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1893-09-17
At THE PAINTED POST.
4 Humble Monument in New York
State OF the Old Indian
Wars.
How O Town in the Empire State
Game by It's Peculiar
Name.
The Legend of the Origin of tho Post
some Conflicting Stories Of
the din


the Indians
The first permanent white settlement in
6teubon county was made at the Painted
Post in 17S6 by Samuel Harris, an Indian
trader. There was at that time an impor-
tant village of Seneca Indians established
on the banks Of the Conhocton river, near
the junction of the waters of the Tioga,
Canisteo and Conhocton rivers, which here
form the Chemung and pass on to the Sus-
quehanna. Beyond a doubt the Six Ma
ions appreciated the strategic Importance
of the Painted Post, where three long val
leys came together. bringing water, which
leaves no trail. Through this gateway the
war cloud from the Geneshago, or Shining
valley, descended in July, IT'S. upon I'm
errand Of savag vengeance to the Wyom-
ing. By the same route, as well as by the
waters of the Conhocton, the former lords
of the soil retreated from the battlefield of
Newtown, where General Sullivan and his
yeomanry on Aug. 20, 17T9, dealt a death
blow to the power of the great Indian CON
federacy.
The first white man folna O name made
to order for the place, and that name still
remains the most interesting feature of the
locality. The advantages of river and val
ley have dwindlea away before the superior
enterprise and courage of men who many
years later settled in the narrow bottoms
at Corning, two miles distant. The latter
is now a city of 1900 inhabitants, while
Painted Post has been Incorporated a vii
lage with a population of 800 persons.
The present painted post stands at the
southeast corner of the cross roads. 1t is
about is feet high and octagonal in shape
painted red. 1t is 8 inches in diameter,
tapels at the top and is surmounted by a
sheet iron Indian chief grasping q toma-
hawk and bow and dressed in a red jacket
and buckskin trousers. The original post
stood near the center of the present high
way leading from Painted Post to Corning
and n few rods cast of the -Four Corners''
and the sight Of the present post. 1t was
an oak post 10 or 12 feet above the ground
and from 10 to a inches in diameter. 1t
was square to q height of -four feet above
the ground and then octagonal to the top.
Samuel Cook Of Lindley thus described
it to the late Charles II. Erwin of Painted
Post, as detailed by the latter in his manu-
script "A History of Painted Post and
Other Towns" now in the hands of his ex-
ecutors: "When in 1892 l saw it for the
first time, it had no marks or paint upon it,
and it had the color Of q weather beaten
oaken rail. There was neither mark nor
carving upon it. 1 have many a time sat
near it and with others talked about it and
speculated about it's %history.'' It stood on
the banks of the Conhocton river at the
side of q well beaten trail from the village
to Tioga Point (Athens, Pa.).
This post remained until 1901 or 1902,
when it is said to awe been dug up and
carried down the Chemung river two miles
to Knoxville, whether for the purpose of
founding a museum or for the more seri-
GUS object of purloining the fame which
encircled the oak post is not clear. 1t was
afterward returned, but in the meantime
a new oak post had been erected by the
whites in the settlement near the original
site. What became Of the old post is not
known for certain. 1t is said to have re-
manned in the garnet of the first log tavern,
and chips from it were furnished to relic
hunters until one day in a momen of i'm
patience Colonel Erwin, the landlord of
the tavern, adjudged it a nuisance and or
dered it thrown into the river.
In the course of the next 90 years the new
post, which was much larger thar the old
one, was Clipped to pieces by relic fiends,
and a few years later a new post was raised
with q sheet iron Indian at the top.
The generally accepted legend concerning
the post makes q very pretty story. 1t is
said that Captain Roland Montour, a half
breed and q son Of Queen Catharine of Wy
onling fame, was seriously wounded in the
fight at NewtoWn and died on the retreat
up the Conhocton. He was buried under a
large elm tree, and the "re-can-nes-to," as
the post was called by the Delawares, was
set up as an imposing monument to his
memory. This legend was confirmed by
the statement made by the Seneca Chief
Cornplantcr to Captain Samuel Adams in
an interview had at Cornplantar's eddy on
the Allegheny river in 1888.
Cornplanter, being asked about the post,
said through his interpreter, as related by
Captain Adams, that a great chief and
brave was there taken sick, died and was
buried under the shade Of an elm ON the
north side of the CONNECTION river (aG the
same time mapping it cut on the ground
floor and marking with his knife the place
OF the grave), and that he ~tCornplautcr)
was one of the council chat placed over the
grave u post, stained with the juice Of the
wild strawberry, to mark the spot. lie
would not state tho name or tribe of this
great chief.
1t was not Captain Montour, for he. with
his brother John, appeared at the military
post OF Major Taylor, near Pittsburg, in
December of the same year. Two years
later the two brothers were with Colonel
Broadhead on the Muskingum, in Ohio.
Charles il. Erwin, in a pamphlet pub
1ished us late as 1874, accepts Captain Mon
tour rs the hero and martyr. but in hismorc
recently prepared manuscripts cites tho
facts which show that the captain and his
brother We're active in the flesh for several
years later at least.
Mr.. Erwin in his latest work scouts the
idea that the post was intended as Il mouu-
ment at all. Such a tribute to the dead was
contrary to Indian nature and to any known
custom among them. 1t seems highly i'm,
probable that so unusual an exception
should be made very shortly after a battle
in which the Indians had been worstcd and
when their white enemy might be expected
to appear among them AT any time. 1t is
true, however, that excavations for cellar.
or wells in the neighborhood Of the post
have frequently unearthed Indian bone;
and rclics.-New York Times.
.Ictoria's Big Hands.
The queen of England has a large hand
She takes ~ gloves. Her fingers are cy
tremcly short and out of proportion to til,
size Of her hands. The queen viii wcn,
-