Catherine's Town was a
Seneca village, (''Queanettquaga,'' or ''Sheoquago'') named informally for a prominent
Seneca woman,
Catherine Montour. It was located at the south end of
Seneca Lake, near present-day
Watkins Glen (and the towns of
Catharine and
Montour, as well as the village of
Montour Falls, all named for Catherine Montour) in what is now
Schuyler County, New York
Schuyler County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 17,898, making it the second-least populous county in New York. The county seat is the village of Watkins Glen. The name is in honor of Gen ...
.
The Seneca leader
Red Jacket
Red Jacket (known as ''Otetiani'' in his youth and ''Sagoyewatha'' eeper Awake''Sa-go-ye-wa-tha'' as an adult because of his oratorical skills) (c. 1750–January 20, 1830) was a Seneca orator and chief of the Wolf clan, based in Western New York ...
was said to have practiced his speeches at
Shequaga Falls, located nearby in the present-day Town of
Montour Falls. According to "Historical Sketch of the Chemung Valley, Etc..," he was also buried there.
Catherine's Town was destroyed by the
Sullivan Expedition of 1779, one of more than 40 Iroquois villages decimated by the rebel colonial forces in retaliation for British-Iroquois raids in the eastern Mohawk Valley. At the time the town was reported to have 30 houses, fields of corn, and fruit orchards, all of which were burned, in addition to the people's winter stores of corn.
Other names for the village during the colonial era were French Catherine Town, Catherine's Landing, Catherinestown, and Catharine Town, all after Montour. In the late 18th century, as new European-American settlers began to develop it, the village was known as Havana. It was later renamed as
Montour Falls, New York. (There are both a village and the Town of Montour Falls.)
References
Former Native American populated places in the United States
Former populated places in New York (state)
Iroquois populated places
Seneca tribe
Geography of Schuyler County, New York
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