Madame Montour facts for kids

Madame Montour (born 1667 or around 1685 – died around 1753) was an important interpreter, diplomat, and leader. She had both Algonquin and French Canadian family roots. Even though she was very well known, people often called her only "Madame" or "Mrs." Montour.

Historians are not completely sure about her exact birth year. She might have been Isabelle (or Elizabeth) Couc, born in 1667. Or she could have been Isabelle Couc's niece, born around 1685, whose first name is not certain.

In 1711, Madame Montour started working as an interpreter and advisor for the province of New York. Around 1727, she and her husband, Carondawana, an Oneida chief, moved to the province of Pennsylvania. Their village, called Otstonwakin, was located where Loyalsock Creek meets the West Branch Susquehanna River. The modern town of Montoursville, named after her, grew on the other side of the river later on.

Madame Montour's son, Andrew Montour, also became a key interpreter in Pennsylvania and Virginia. His son, John Montour, followed in their footsteps. Some of Montour's female relatives were also important leaders in New York and Pennsylvania. Historians have sometimes mixed them up with Madame Montour.

Who Was Madame Montour?

There has been some confusion about the details of Madame Montour's life. She has often been mistaken for her female relatives, especially Catharine Montour, who was important in western New York. Historians have worked hard to figure out the facts from old records and different names.

Not much is known for sure about her early life. In 1744, a man named Witham Marshe met the "famous Mrs. Montour" at a big treaty conference in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. When asked about her past, Montour told Marshe she was born in Canada to a French father. She said that about 50 years earlier (around 1694), when she was about ten years old, she was captured by the Iroquois. She didn't remember much about her parents. The Iroquois adopted and raised her. She later married Carondawana, an Oneida war chief, and they had several children before he died in battle in 1729.

In 1974, historian William A. Hunter suggested that Madame Montour was Elizabeth Couc. Elizabeth was a métis (someone of mixed Native American and European ancestry) born in 1667 near Trois-Rivières, New France (now Quebec, Canada). Elizabeth (also called Isabelle) Couc was one of five children of Pierre Couc dit Lafleur, a French fur trader, and Marie Miteoamegoukoué, a Christian Algonquin woman. Hunter admitted that some of the proof connecting Madame Montour to Elizabeth Couc was "vague and contradictory." He believed Montour was captured by an Iroquois group around 1695. However, if she was Elizabeth Couc, she would have been much older than ten at that time.

Historians Hirsch and Sivertsen think Montour might have been unclear about her past on purpose. This allowed her to present herself in Pennsylvania as a refined French woman, even though she wore Native American clothing. Elizabeth Couc also used the name Isabelle. Historian Alison Duncan Hirsch found a record from 1711 that mentions payments to "Eysabelle Montour interpretress." This is the only known English record of Montour's first name.

Other historians, like Parmenter and Hagedorn, believe Madame Montour was not Isabelle Couc, but her niece. In this view, Montour was born in a Native village near modern Sorel, Quebec, around 1685. This birth year matches the story she told Marshe. Her parents would have been Louis Couc Montour, Isabelle Couc's brother, and Madeleine, a Sokoki (Western Abenaki) woman. If she was born in 1685, her birth was not recorded, and her first name is still uncertain. Her given name has also been listed as Catherine, Elisabeth/Isabelle, and Madeleine.

Family Connections

Historian Alison Hirsch has pieced together that if Madame Montour was Isabelle Couc, she had an exciting life before becoming an interpreter in New York. In 1684, Couc married Joachim Germano and had at least one child. By the 1690s, she was living in Michilimakinac (now Michigan) with two of her sisters. They worked as interpreters in the fur trading center. Isabelle might have also worked as an interpreter for Sieur de Cadillac, the French commander there. Cadillac later made some harsh claims about Isabelle, but historians think he might have had a personal reason for saying those things. When Cadillac moved the French military post to Fort Detroit in 1701, Isabelle likely moved there with her new husband, Pierre Tichenet. She later left with Étienne de Veniard, Sieur de Bourgmont when he deserted the fort in 1706. Her time in the northwest helped her learn many Algonquian and Iroquoian languages, making her even better at interpreting.

Around 1708, Montour married an Oneida war captain named Carondawana. (If Madame Montour was Isabelle Couc's niece, Carondawana was probably her only husband.) They had a son around 1720 named Andrew Montour, who became a famous interpreter in Pennsylvania and Virginia. Iroquois kinship terms sometimes described a woman's niece as her daughter, which causes confusion about Montour's other possible children. Another boy, Lewis (Louis) Montour, might have been her son or her nephew. "French Margaret" Montour, often called Montour's daughter, may have actually been her niece.

The chart below shows the family connections. The names in green are the two women who might have been Madame Montour. Andrew Montour is linked to both of his possible mothers. Also, because it's not certain if French Margaret was Montour's daughter or niece, the chart shows both possibilities.

Working in New York

The first Montour to become well-known was Louis Montour, who was either Madame Montour's brother or father. Born Louis Couc, he started using "Montour" as his last name in the 1680s. During King William's War (1689–1697), Louis Montour and other Native Americans in Canada fought against the British-allied Iroquois from New York. It was during this time that an Iroquois raiding party might have captured his daughter, who some believe became "Madame Montour."

Louis Montour moved to Michilimakinac in the 1690s, where he worked as a fur trader. After King William's War ended, he helped arrange trade between western Algonquians and merchants in Albany, New York. He traveled with "Far Indians" to Albany. This profitable business shifted money from New France to New York. It also helped build diplomatic ties between the Iroquois and western nations. French officials saw this as a danger. In 1709, during Queen Anne's War, Louis Montour was killed by Louis-Thomas Chabert de Joncaire and his men, following orders from Governor Vaudreuil.

After Louis Montour's death, Madame Montour took over his role. She was known as his sister and gained some of the trust people had in him. Even though she couldn't read or write, she was very valuable as an interpreter. She could speak French, English, and several languages from both the Algonquian and Iroquoian families. With family all over the region, she was also a perfect go-between for different cultures. Historian Jon Parmenter says Madame Montour's work as a "behind the scenes" advisor was even more important than her interpreting. When Robert Hunter became governor of New York in 1710, Montour became his personal interpreter and one of his most trusted advisors. They spoke in French. Her husband Carondawana took the English name "Robert Hunter" to honor the governor. He became a leader of the Algonquian-speaking Shawnee in Pennsylvania in 1714. He and Madame Montour traveled between Pennsylvania and New York for years, strengthening connections between them and the Iroquois.

Madame Montour worked as an interpreter throughout the 1710s, but there are few records of her activities then. In 1719, she asked New York for unpaid wages. However, with Governor Hunter leaving in 1720, she might not have received the money. Historian Alison Duncan Hirsch explains that an official recommendation about Montour's pay has been misunderstood. She wasn't asking to be paid the same as a man. Instead, she wanted the pay of an interpreter, which was higher than that of a regular soldier.

Life in Pennsylvania

Otstuagy - Madame Montour's Pennsylvania Village
Otstuagy - Madame Montour's Pennsylvania Village Location in Pennsylvania
Location	Montoursville, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Nearest city	Williamsport, Pennsylvania

At some point, Montour and her family moved to the province of Pennsylvania. It's not clear exactly when or why she moved. She might have been traveling between New York and Pennsylvania as early as 1714. This was when her husband Carondawana was chosen as the Iroquois spokesperson for the Shawnee living in Pennsylvania. By 1727, she and Carondawana were living at Otstonwakin. This village was also known as Otstuagy or French Town.

Otstonwakin was located along the Great Shamokin Path, where Loyalsock Creek meets the West Branch Susquehanna River. It was on the west bank of the river. The modern town of Montoursville grew on the east bank after the American Revolutionary War.

Because of her knowledge of Native American cultures and her ability to speak both Iroquoian and Algonquian languages, Montour was sought out as an advisor. Officials and traders in Pennsylvania wanted her help. She first appears in Pennsylvania records in July 1727. She was an interpreter at a meeting in Philadelphia between Governor Patrick Gordon and an Iroquois group.

Madame Montour and Carondawana had a close relationship with Shikellamy, a well-known Oneida diplomat. Shikellamy benefited from their cultural and language skills. In 1729, Carondawana was killed fighting against the southern Catawba, who were traditional enemies of the Iroquois. After her husband's death, Montour was slowly left out of Pennsylvania's official diplomacy. Shikellamy and his helper Conrad Weiser wanted to control the province's relationship with the Iroquois. After 1734, she no longer appeared at official meetings. She retired to her village, where she ran a trading post. She also raised her son Andrew Montour to become an interpreter and diplomat.

During the 1740s, Montour met several Moravian missionaries who were spreading their faith in Pennsylvania. Count Nicolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf, a bishop of the Moravian Church, visited Otstonwakin in 1742. He was on his way to Onondaga, the Iroquois capital in western New York. He gave a sermon in French, and Montour reportedly cried. Montour asked Zinzendorf to baptize two Native American children. But he said no, explaining that Moravians did not baptize in a village without first setting up a mission there. Zinzendorf wrote that "She left me displeased."

In 1744, Montour attended the conference for the treaty of Lancaster. There, she told her story to Witham Marshe. Marshe, like others, thought Montour was a French woman captured and raised by Native Americans. He didn't realize she was métis, with partial French ancestry. Historian Alison Duncan Hirsch believes the captivity story Montour told Marshe was a made-up tale. She created it to present herself differently in Pennsylvania, even claiming her father had been a governor of New France.

By 1745, she had left Otstonwakin. She was living with her son Andrew on an island in the Susquehanna River. This was near the Native village of Shamokin, which was home to Delaware, Oneida, and Tutelo people. In March 1746, Andrew took her west, across the Appalachian Mountains to Logstown on the Ohio River. She was reportedly going blind by then. This was her last appearance in historical records, except for a short note from trader John Harris in January 1753: "Madame Montour is dead." We don't know exactly when or where she died.

Madame Montour's Lasting Impact

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

Madame Montour has many descendants, and many Iroquois people still have the Montour name today. Montoursville, Pennsylvania, a town founded near her village of Otstonwakin, was named after her. Montour County, Pennsylvania, and Montour Falls, New York, are just two other places named for her relatives and descendants.

Montour's important role as an interpreter and cultural go-between was continued by her son, Andrew Montour. He shared his mother's talent for languages. He worked as an interpreter for Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Sir William Johnson's Indian Department. Andrew Montour was made a captain in George Washington's army at Fort Necessity during the French and Indian War. He was given 880 acres (3.6 km2) of land by Pennsylvania in the Montoursville area. He later moved to what is now Juniata County before finally settling on Montour's Island in the Ohio River near Pittsburgh.

She may have had another son, Lewis (or Louis) Montour, whose Native American name was possibly Tau-weson or Tan Weson. He might have been her nephew instead of her son. Not much is known about him. He worked as a messenger and was reportedly killed in the French and Indian War.

Montour's daughter or niece, Margaret, sometimes called "French Margaret," became the leader of French Margaret's Town. This was a Native American settlement a few miles up the West Branch Susquehanna River from Montour's village. Margaret Montour's daughter Catharine Montour also became a noted local leader. Many historians in the 1800s confused her with Madame Montour.

At least four streams in Pennsylvania were named after her; see Montour Run.

See also

• Montour family