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But subsequently, in that same year, the Gazette appears dated Towanda; and in 1822, again the Bradford Settler was dated at Meansville. Towanda was incorporated as a borough in 1828, and its name was thus permanently fixed. The location of the canal, the discovery of coal-beds in the vicinity, and the establishment of a most accommodating bank, gave a great impetus to the growth of the place between the years 1836 and 1840; but the subsequent disastrous failure of the bank, in the spring of 1842, following, as it did, the already severe commercial distress, and the suspension of the public works, spread a gloom over its prospects. The natural advantages of the place, however, are too great to be annulled by any temporary cause, and Towanda must soon shake off the load, and eventually become a place of considerable business. Besides the great valley of the Susquehanna, three smaller valleys, rich in the products of agriculture, centre here, and must pour their trade into the stores of Towanda.

ATHENS, now one of the pleasantest villages in Pennsylvania, extends across an isthmus, between the Tioga and Susquehanna rivers, about two miles above their confluence. Above and below the town, the land widens out into meadows of surpassing fertility. The long main street of the village runs lengthwise of the isthmus, and is adorned by delight

Athens.

ful residences, and verdant shades and shrubbery. The annexed view exhibits the northern entrance to the street. There is an academy here, and Presbyterian, Methodist, and Episcopal churches. There is a substantial bridge over each of the rivers; that over the Susquehanna has been recently erected; that over the Tioga was built in 1820. The borough was incorporated in 1831. On the completion of the North Branch canal, a great increase of trade may be anticipated. Population,

435.

The whole region around Tioga is highly picturesque. The annexed view was taken from the Sheshequin road, immediately overlooking the confluence of the rivers. Directly in front are the broad meadows below Athens, with the town in the distance, and the valleys of the two rivers

stretching away among the hills of New York. Tioga Point, from its geographical position, has been noted, in the annals of Indian warfare, as the site of an ancient Indian town, and a place of rendezvous for parties, or armies passing up or down the two great streams. At the lower

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end of the village are the remains of an old fort erected during the Indian wars. On the beautiful plain just below the mountain, seen on the left of the picture, stood the "Castle" of the celebrated Catharine Montour, sometimes called Queen Esther, whose more permanent residence was at Catharine's town, at the head of Seneca lake.

Catharine Montour was a half-breed, who had been well educated in Canada. Her reputed father was one of the French governors of that province, and she herself was a lady of compara tive refinement. She was much caressed in Philadelphia, and mingled in the best society. She exercised a controlling influence among the Indians, and resided in this quarter while they were making their incursions upon the Wyoming settlements. It has been even suspected that she presided at the bloody sacrifice of the Wyoming prisoners after the battle; but Col. Stone, who is good authority upon the history of the Six Nations, utterly discredits the suspicion. The plain upon which the mansion stood is called Queen Esther's flats. Old Mr. Covenhoven, who still lives in Lycoming co., was one of Col. Hartley's expedition to Tioga, just after the battle of Wyoming, for the purpose of burning the Moravian villages and the Indian town at Tioga. Mr. Covenhoven says, that he himself put the brand to "Queen Esther's castle." He describes it as a long, low edifice, constructed with logs set in the ground at intervals of ten feet, with horizontal hewn plank, or puncheons, neatly set into grooves in the posts. It was roofed, or thatched, and had some sort of porch, or other ornament, over the doorway. In 1784, Judge Hollenback, of Luzerne co., had an establishment at Tioga for trading with the Indians, of whom many were still residing up the Tioga valley. Daniel McDowell was his clerk. The Indians having buried the hatchet with the peace of '83, were disposed to be friendly; but the villany of straggling white traders, aided by the demon of rum, often exasperated them to such a degree, that great fears were entertained for the safety of the resident families. About this time a good-natured Indian, who boasted chiefly of his stature as a "big Shickashinny," was murdered while intoxi. cated, near Hollenback's store, by a little roving fur-trader from Delaware river. It was with some difficulty the villagers, through McDowell's intercession, appeased the exasperated feelings of the relatives and friends of the Indian by purchasing his corpse at the price of a pair of old horses! The murderer enlisted in the army, and before long received his due from the Indians on the northwestern frontier. In '84, also, Christopher Hollabird and a Mr. Miller came in and squatted upon lands near the town, supposing them to be in the state of New York. The town appears to have been laid out between the years 1784 and '88, for in the latter year, Elisha Mat

From the hill near the Wysox road. In the foreground is the bed of the North Branch Canal, laid bare (in 1841) by the destruction of the dam below. Over the centre of the bridge is the Presbyterian Church; on the hill is the Academy; and on the right the Methodist and the Episcopal Churches.

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thewson, and his brother-in-law Elisha Satterlee, who had previously purchased town lots, and 100 acre out-lots, came up from the Wyoming valley and settled here. The venerable Mrs. Matthewson, a sister of Mr. Satterlee, from whom many of these particulars are derived, still lives near the east end of the Susquehanna bridge. Her husband formerly resided in town, at the "old red house," which was erected about the year '94 or '95. At that time the lumber for frame houses was brought from Owego cr., where was the nearest mill. Mrs. Matthewson, at the age of thirteen, and the oldest of six children, was, with her mother, in Forty fort during the battle of Wyoming. The father was killed. The mother, with her little flock, crossed the mountains on foot, to New England. On the Pokono mountains their only food for two or three days, was the whortleberries found along the road.

In the year 1790, the relations between the U. S. and the Indians on the northwestern frontier, assumed a very threatening attitude, and great fears were entertained that the Senecas, some of whose people had been murdered by the frontier-men, might unite with their brethren on the great lakes. A conference with the Six Nations was invited at Tioga Point, at which Col. Timothy Pickering, then of Wyoming, was commissioner on the part of the U. S. The council-fire was kindled on the 16th Nov., and was kept burning until the 23d. Among the nations represented, were the Senecas, Cayugas, Onondagas, Oneidas, Chippeways, and also several of the Stockbridge Indians, among whom was their veteran captain, and the faithful friend of the U. S., Hendrick Apamaut. The Indians were in a high state of excitement in regard to the outrage upon the Senecas. The chiefs, Red Jacket, Farmer's Brother, Little Billy, Hendrick Apamaut, and Fish-Carrier, an old and distinguished warrior of the Cayugas, took the most active part in the council. Old Hendrick made a most pathetic appeal to the commissioner, reminding him of the attachment of his tribe to the U. S. during the revolution, of their military services, and the neglect with which their now diminished band had been treated. The effort of Red Jacket, one of his earliest, produced a deep effect upon his people. "Still, by a wise and well-adapted speech, Col. Pickering succeeded in allaying the excitement of the Indians dried their tears, and wiped out the blood that had been shed."* After that subject had been disposed of, Red Jacket introduced the subject of their lands, and the purchase of Phelps and Gorham. The following incident is related by Col. Stone, in the Life and Times of Red Jacket. He had - it from the manuscript recollections of Thomas Morris.

During the progress of the negotiations with Col. Pickering at this council, an episode was enacted, of which some account may be excused in this place, as an illustration of Indian character and manners. It was in this year (1790) that Robert Morris, of Philadelphia, the great financier of the revolution, purchased from the state of Massachusetts the pre-emptive right to that portion of her territory in Western New York, that had not been sold to Phelps and Gorham, viz. the entire tract bounded on the north by Lake Ontario, on the south by the Pennsylvania line, on the east by the Genesee river, and on the west by the Niagara. Preparatory to the negotiations which Mr. Morris well knew he should be obliged to hold with the Indians, and for the general management of his concerns in that country, his son Thomas had taken up his residence at Canandaigua, and was diligently cultivating an acquaintance with the Indians. In this he was successful, and he soon became popular among them. He was in attendance with Col. Pickering at Tioga Point, where the Indians determined to adopt him into the Seneca nation, and Red Jacket bestowed upon him the name he himself had borne previous to his elevation to the dignity of a Sachem,-Otetiani-"Always Ready." The occasion of which they availed themselves to perform the ceremony of conferring upon young Morris his new name, was a religious observance, when the whole sixteen hundred Indians present at the treaty united in an offering to the moon, then being at her full. The ceremonies were performed in the evening. It was a clear night, and the moon shone with uncommon brilliancy. The host of Indians, and their neophyte, were all seated upon the ground in an extended circle, on one side of which a large

* See Stone's Life and Times of Red Jacket.

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