Andrew Montour


Andrew Montour: (abt.1700 - ?) 
     He was the son of Roland (Telenemut) Montour & an Iroquois woman, 
born in a Seneca village in New York. Andrew married Sarah/Sally Ainse (1728-1823)
in 1745 and their son was Nicolas (abt.1760-1808). 
He was at Pickawillany with Croghan & Gist in 1751 & 
had a brother (Lewis/Tanweson) who was an interpreter 
for the French. Sarah later became a trader at Detroit and was married 
at least four times.
Andrew was a Native American leader of Seneca and/or Delaware blood. 

Andrew looked European although his face was painted 
like an Indian's. He was dressed according to the following description:
"He wore a brown broadcloth coat, a scarlet damaskin lapel waistcoat,
breeches over which his shirt hung, a black cordovan neckerchief decked 
with silver bugles, shoes and stockings and a hat. His ears hung 
with pendants of brass and other wires plaited together 
like the handle of a basket."

Indians in Pennsylvania, by Paul A. W. Wallace, p 175.
"ANDREW MONTOUR (SATTELIHU). Andrew, as son of Madame MONTOUR,
was one of the most picturesque figures in colonial Pennsylvania. 
Count ZINZENDORF wrote in 1742: "Andrew's cast of counternace is 
decidedly European, and had not his face been encircled with a broad band 
of paint, applied with bear's fat, I would certainly have taken 
him for one."
He served as interpreter at many Indian conferences, having a 
good knowledge of Iroquoian as well as Algonkian tongues. 
His influence, especially over the Ohio Indians, was so great 
that the French put a price on his head. He accompanied Conrad WEISER 
in 1745 and 1748. With George CHOGHAN he made many journeys 
into the Ohio country and accompanied William TRENT in 1752. 
During the French and Indian War and PONTIAC's War, he led Indians 
in the British service. He organized a company of Indian scouts 
for WASHINGTON in 1754 and was in the battle for Fort Necessity. 
In 1755 he with with Braddock at the Monongahela. For his services 
to Pennsylvania as soldier, interpreter, and Indian agent 
he received several grants of land. For some years after 1752 
his home was on Montour Creek near its junction with Sherman Creek, 
about twelve miles northwest of Carlisle. He died in 1752.

Andrew died in 1774, but his son John Montour, was an important 
Delaware military leader on the Pennsylvania/Ohio frontier. 
Captain John Montour was a key figure in that region and commanded a company 
of Delaware Indians in the American Army. Montour's visit to the 
Oneida and Tuscarora community at Schenectady, New York in May, 1782 
reflects the closeness of the Indian world.


Nicolas Montour I: (abt.1756 - 1808) 
     He was the son of Andrew Montour & Sarah Ainse (bapt. at the 
First Dutch Reformed Church in Albany, New York) and married 
Genevieve Wills in Montreal in 1798. 
His son Nicolas II was at Ft.Vermillion on the Saskatchwan River 
1804-06.
Nicolas was a clerk for Joseph & Benjamin Frobisher on the Churchill River
in 1774 and a clerk for Barthelemi Blondeau in 1777. He became a partner
in the North West Co. in 1784 and was at Fort des Prairies 
with Peter Pangman in the winter of 1790. 
He retired temporarily from the fur trade in 1792, 
but in 1797 was in partnership with David-Alexander Grant & William Grant.

An excerpt from Harbaugh's 1909 History of Miami County Ohio,
Chapter 2, FIRST WHITE MAN IN THE COUNTY 

	Gist had with him as interpreter a companion named 
	Andrew Montour, who was a character of those times. 
   	His mother was the celebrated half-breed, Catherine Montour,
	who had been carried off by the Iroquois and adopted by them.
	Her son Andrew, who became of much service to Gist, is thus
	described by one who knew him:
	"His face is like that of a European, but marked with a broad
	Indian ring of bear's grease and paint drawn completely around it.
	He wears a coat of fine cloth of cinnamon color, a black necktie 
	with silver spangles, a red satin waistcoat, trousers, 
	over which hangs his shirt, shoes and stockings, a hat and brass
	ornaments, something like the handle of a basket suspended 
	from his ears." A real forest dandy of the olden time!

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