Catherine's Town was a

Seneca Seneca may refer to: People and language * Seneca (name), a list of people with either the given name or surname * Seneca people, one of the six Iroquois tribes of North America ** Seneca language, the language of the Seneca people Places Extrat ...

village, (''Queanettquaga,'' or ''Sheoquago'') named informally for a prominent

woman,

Catherine Montour Catharine Montour, also known as Queen Catharine (died after 1791), was a prominent Iroquois leader living in ''Queanettquaga,'' a Seneca village of ''Sheaquaga'', informally called Catharine's Town, in western New York. She has often been confuse ...

. 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 Montour Falls is a village located in Schuyler County, New York, United States. The population was 2,714 at the time of the 2020 census. A waterfall at the end of West Main Street gives the village its name. The name "Montour" is derived from Q ...

, 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 Gene ...

. 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 people, Seneca orator and Tribal chief, chief of the Wolf ...

was said to have practiced his speeches at Shequaga Falls, located nearby in the present-day Town of

. According to "Historical Sketch of the Chemung Valley, Etc..," he was also buried there. Catherine's Town was destroyed by the

Sullivan Expedition The 1779 Sullivan Expedition (also known as the Sullivan-Clinton Expedition, the Sullivan Campaign, and the Sullivan-Clinton Genocide) was a United States military campaign during the American Revolutionary War, lasting from June to October 1779 ...

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 Montour Falls is a village located in Schuyler County, New York, United States. The population was 2,714 at the time of the 2020 census. A waterfall at the end of West Main Street gives the village its name. The name "Montour" is derived from Q ...

. (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 {{NorthAm-native-stub