Madame Montour

Catherine Montour, more commonly referred to as Madame Montour, was born at Three Rivers, Canada in 1667. Her father, Pierre Couc, was a Frenchman and her mother was an Algonquin. During the early 1700’s her family spent most of their time at Forts Mackinac and Detroit involved in Indian trade and in 1709 while accompanying her brother Louis to Albany for trading purposes, Louis was killed. Thus Madame Montour found herself alone in New York. As a result she was employed by Governor Robert Hunter as an interpreter and ended up marrying the Oneida chief, Carandowana. When chief Shikellamy came to Shamokin in 1727, Madame Montour and her family came with him and she continued to serve as an interpreter. Her husband Carandowana was killed in an Indian raid in 1729 and after this time Madame Montour traveled back and forth, at times living in Shamokin and at other times living near present day Montoursville with her son Andrew and her niece French Margaret. She is reported to have died in 1753.

Madame Montour was a creative and independent woman. She spoke English, German, Algonquin and Iroquois, and French, yet because she was illiterate in all of these she was forced to sign all public documents with an “X”. Many Pennsylvanians believed that her parents were French, that her father was a governor of Canada and that she had been captured and raised by Indians and Madame Montour played into this myth, allowing it to ever circulate and become more popular. For all of these eccentric characteristics and for her services as an interpreter, Madame Montour was one of the few Shamokin females to be deemed influential and significant.