PAINTED POST Steuben County New York
NEWSPAPER TIDBITS

1797

About the 1st of the year the dwelling of Mr. Stephen Patterson was burnt at the Painted Post, in which three unfortunate babes fell victim's. Litchfield Monitor (Litchfield, CT) March 1, 1797; page 3.

1860

DESTRUCTIVE FIRE AT PAINTED POST.      PAINTED POST, Steuben County, May 8. - A most destructive fire occurred here yesterday, involving the loss of nearly $60,000. The fire was discovered in the foundry of Curtis & Erwin, which with the building attached, was destroyed. The barn and livery stable of the Lowell House, the building known as the Badger block, the dwelling of J. P. Bennet, the dwelling of H. G. Blood, and the dwelling and shop of Mr. Wilder, the dwelling of G. Brown and the dwelling of O. Jordan were also completely destroyed. The fire is attributed to spontaneous combustion from the foundry.      Curtis & Erwin's loss is $50,000, insured for $12,060; loss of the Badger block $2,000; no insurance. J. P. Bennett's loss $1,000; no insurance, Mr. Wilder was insured for $1,200; G. Brown's loss $600; no insurance. Trenton State Gazette (Trenton, NJ) May 9, 1860; page 2.

1884

Painted Post Burning Up.      CORNING, N. Y., July 17. - A disastrous fire broke out late last night in the town of Painted Post, N. Y., two miles northwest of this place, and is still raging. Numerous dwellings and business places have already been destroyed. The town has no fire department and requests for assistance have been sent to this place and Elmira. No estimate of the damage can be given at presten, but from the outlook it will be heavy. New Haven Register (New Haven, CT) July 17, 1884; page. 1.

1890

A Wreck at Painted Post.      PAINTED POST, N.Y., March 7. - Last evening, as the Rochester express was passing this station, the rear truck of the last passenger coach went off on the main line on switch, instead of keeping on the branch. Swinging around, the coach collided with an engine standing on the main track, and eight seats in the car were swept out clean. The injured are: Charles L. Blackeslee, of Albany, who had his shoulder blade broken, and another gentleman and lady, names unknown; the former being bruised about one leg and the lady being struck with the water tank. No lives lost. Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, PA) Saturday, March 8, 1890; page 6, col. 7.

1895

THE PAINTED POST. A HUMBLE MONUMENT IN NEW YORK OF THE OLD INDIAN WARS. How a Town in the Empire State Came by Its Peculiar Name - The Legend of the Origin of the Post - Some Conflicting Stories of the Indians.      The first permanent white settlement in Steuben county was made at the Painted Post in 1780 by Samuel Harris, an Indian trader. There was at that time an important village of Seneca Indians established on the banks of the Conhocton river, near the junction of the waters of the Tioga, Canisteo and Conhocton rivers, which here form the Chemung and pass on to the Susquehanna. Beyond a doubt the Six Nations appreciated the strategic importance of the Painted Post, where three long valleys came together, bringing water, which leaves no trail. Through this gateway the war cloud from the Geneshago, or Shiniug valley, descended in July, 1778, upon an errand of savage vengeance to the Wyoming. By the same route, as well as by the waters of the Conhocton, the former lords of the soil retreated from the battlefield of Newtown, where General Sullivan and his yeomanry on Aug. 29, 1779, dealt a deathblow to the power of the great Indian confederacy.      The first white man found a name made to order for the place, and that name still remains the most interesting feature of the locality. The advantages of river and valley have dwindled away before the superior enterprise and courage of men who many years later settled in the narrow bottoms at Corning, two miles distant. The latter is now a city of 12, 000 inhabitants, while Painted Post has been incorporated a village with a population of 1,800 persons.      The present Painted Post stands at the southeast corner of the cross roads. It is about 18 feet hight and octagonal in shape, painted red, it is 8 inches in diameter, tapers at the top and is surmounted by a sheet iron Indian Chief grasping a tomahawk and bow and dressed in a red jacket and buckskin trousers. The original post stood near the center of the present highway leading from Painted Post to Corning, and a few rods east of the "Four Corners" and the sight of the present post. It was an oak post 10 or 12 feet above the ground and from 10 to 14 inches in diameter. It was square to a height of four feet above the ground and then octagonal to the top.      Samuel Cook of Lindley thus described it to the late Charles H. Erwin of Painted Post, as detailed by the latter in his manuscript "A History of Painted Post and Other Towns," now in the hands of his executors: "When in 1792 I saw it for the first time, it had no marks or paint upon it, and it had the color of a weather beaten oaken rail. There was neither mark nor carving upon it. I have many a time sat near it and with others talked about it and speculated about its history." It stood on the banks of the Conhocton river at the side of a well beaten trail from the village to Tioga Point (Athens, Pa.).      This post remained until 1801 or 1802, when it is said to have been dug up and carried down the Chemung river two miles to Knoxville, whether for the purpose of founding a museum or for the more serious object or purloining the fame which encircled the oak post is not clear. It was afterward returned but in the meantime a new oak post had been erected by the whites in the settlement near the original site. What became of the old post is not known for certain. It is said to have remained in the garret of the first log tavern, and chips from it were furnished to relic hunters until one day in a moment of impatience Colonel Erwin, the landlord of the tavern, adjudged it a nuisance and ordered it thrown into the river.      In the course of the next 20 years the new post, which was much larger than the old one, was chipped to pieces by relic fiends, and a few years later a new post was raised with a sheet iron Indian at the top.      The generally accepted legend concerning the post makes a very pretty story. It is said that Captain Roland Montour, a half breed and a son of Queen Catharine of Wyoming fame, was seriously wounded in the fight at Newtown and died on the retreat up the Conhocton. He was buried under a large elm tree, and the "Te-can-nes-to," as the post was called by the Delawares, was set up as an imposing monument to his memory. This legend was confirmed by the statement made by the Seneca Chief Cornplanter to Captain Samuel Adams in an interview had at Cornplanter's eddy on the Alleghany river in 1833.      Cornplanter, being asked about the post, said through his interpreter, as related by Captain Adams, that a great chief and brave was there taken sick, died and was buried under the shade of an elm on the north side of the Conhocton river (at the same time mapping it out on the ground floor and marking with his knife the place of the grave), and that he (Cornplanter) was one of the council that placed over the grave a post, stained with the juice of the wild strawberry, to mark the spot. He would not state the name or tribe of this great chief.      It was not Captain Montour, for he, with his brother John, appeared at the military post of Major Taylor, near Pittsburg, in December of the same year. Two years later the two brothers were with Colonel Broadhead on the Muskingum, in Ohio.      Charles H. Erwin, in a pamphlet published as late as 1874, accepts Captain Montour as the hero and martyr, but in his more recently prepared manuscripts cites the facts which show that the captain and his brother were active in the flesh for several years later at least.      Mr. Erwin in his latest work scouts the idea that the post was intended as a monument at all. Such a tribute to the dead was contrary to Indian nature and to any known custom among them. It seems highly improbable that so unusual an exception should be made very shortly after a battle in which the Indians had been worsted and when their white enemy might be expected to appear among them at any time. It is true, however, that excavations for cellars or wells in the neighborhood of the post have frequently unearthed Indian bones and relics. - New York Times. Wilkes-Barre Times (Wilkes-Barre, PA) Thursday, June 20, 1895; page 6, col. 1.

 


HOME