Shawana, The Seneca - A Henry Shoemaker Monument

SHAWANA

Daughter Of Old Nicholas

A Friendly Seneca

The Last Indian Girl In The

West Branch Valley

Died February 1855

Fort Antes Chapter D.A.R.

And Col. Henry H. Shoemaker

1918

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MARKER LOCATION:

Ashort distance from 220

814  Nichols Run Road, Jersey Shore

41°12'45.0"N 77°17'14.0"W

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On July 2nd 1951, at the 125th Anniversary Celebration At Jersey Shore

Miss Edith Lauler was named Queen Shawanna,

"The Queen and her court of honor, with a guard of stalwart Indian braves, arrived safely at the old dock after a canoe trip down the Susquehanna."

Shoemaker was heavily involved in the 1951 event.  That year he described Princess Shawana as being 5’ 7” tall, raven-haired, and weighing no more than a hundred pounds. He added that she, “… made up her lips and nails from carmine from the Indian paint mine in Antes Fort and carried her clay make-up box wherever she went”, and she also kept a sack made of panther skin for luck.

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BUT IS IT TRUE?

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By now, when we see the name Shoemaker on a monument, we automatically have our doubts about the veracity of the information.  The addition of the D.A.R. would typically lend some credibility, but in this case, I'm not certain it's enough to outweigh he doubts.  

But for all Shoemakers faults, he really was a great story teller.  So here are the stories he told about Shawana.

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Shawana, In the Altoona Tribune, 1915

"It was on the morning of July 4, 1776, that a canoe was seen emerging from the mouth of Tiadaghton, and heading In leisurely way up the West Branch. Wielding the paddle was a stout looking Indian boy of 5 years, while resting comfortably on a panther skin rug in the rear was a huge, large-featured white man, with a red homespun shirt, a red cap and tasseled buckskin trousers. As they neared a bend in the river where there is a high, bold hill, stood a lookout house made of pine logs, surrounded by a stockade, of oak logs, triangle shape, and eighteen feet high. Within the stockade and overflowing to the river bank below, where many canoes, dugouts and pirogues were moored were half a hundred red-shirted men, most of them very strong and lithe, and many of them bearded.

When the canoe directed by the Indian boy drew near, a friendly shout went up: "Here comes Hugh Nichols; his Indian boy is at the paddle.' As the canoe touched the shore the Indian jumped out and pulled the boat .well out on dry land for his master to disembark. Several white boys, mostly redheaded, clustered about the little Indian, saying: "Good morning, Nichols," according to the custom of those patriarchal days, when servant or slave was addressed by the name of his master. On that day the Fort Horn, or as it is frequently called, the Pine Creek Declaration of Independence (because so many of its signers lived adjacent to Pine Creek, the Tiadaghton of history), was drawn up and signed. In the evening "Nichols," the Indian boy, paddled his employer down stream and out to the spacious log mansion which stood not far from the present Pine Creek bridge. Years passed.

Major Hugh Nichols passed away, wars ceased, the Indians faded like early frost before the sun; still the Indian who went by the name of Nichols continued to revisit the West Branch valley. In a struggle with a wounded buffalo bull on the North Fork of Sinnemahoning. he had been trampled on and lost one eye.- He shunned the wo-men out of pride, but otherwise. he was noble and brave, a true Seneca. In the evening of his life an Indian girl named Cyrena loved' him and they were married." "Two beautiful daughters, named Iona and Shawana blessed the union. But Cyrena" was delicate and soon sickened and. died. She was laid near her grandfather, Blacksnake, in the reservation near Red House. But Nichols, now called,"01d Nichols," continued to revisit the scenes of his youth.

Sometimes be set his camp on the Coudersport pike, on the Herritt farm; at. other times on the bank of . Tiadaghton, near the Major Nichols homestead, but mostly, on a stream jointly called for the major and himself, Nichols run, near, the present Jersey Shore Junction. There each winter he came with his. lovely daughters, supporting his family by basket making, doing chores for his white neighbors or hunting and trapping.

The girls often visited Jersey Shore. They were as pretty as pictures, said one old gentleman who knew them, "skipping across the fields like fawns, hand in hand."

 But the cold winter' of 1855 was too much for the second daughter, the beautiful Shawana; she took pneumonia and died, aged 18 years. The bereaved father buried her by the roadside opposite the Indian spring. He was often seen seated beside the modest mound, weeping bitter tears for Shawana, the last and fairest of Indian maidens in the West Branch valley. With the coming of spring the old redman of nearly 90 years, with his surviving daughter, left for the reservation in New York state, and never returned.

Last week a party which included John G. Knepley. the gifted pupil of Ole Bull, and John H. Chatham, the sweet singing bard of Central Pennsylvania, visited Shawana's grave. With reverent hands they set up again her fallen tombstone only a bit of mountain brownstone, pulled away the weeds on the mound, and departed.

But the spirit of the beautiful Shawana has taken on new life."

Right beside the 1915 article about Shawana is the listing of the papers staff.

Note that the president of the paper was Henry W. Shoemaker.

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In Eldorado Found

By Henry Shoemaker

“Shawana was one of the two daughters of Old Nichols – a one-eyed Indian* who came to the West Branch Valley every autumn and remained there until spring, supporting his family by basket-making, and doing chores for the farmers. He spent the summers on the Allegheny Reservation in New York on Cornplanter’s (Indian Chief) reservation (present day Kinzua Dam). After the death of his daughter, who was carried off by a sudden attack of pneumonia, he left the West Branch with his surviving daughter, Iona, never to return.”

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READ MORE

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Having much more faith in the veracity of Meginness's stories, I did a quick search of some of his work to she if he made any mention of Shawana.  I found that he does mention a Shawana - "Shawana Ben, a friendly Indian".

"The  Indians,  after  the  destruction  of  their  towns,  ceased  to  congregate  there  in  large  numbers.  All  the  land  west  of  Lycoming  Creek,  and  north  of  the  river,  including  the  Island,  belonged  to  the  Indians;  and  it  remained  in  their possession  until  it  was  purchased  at  the  treaty  of  Fort  Stanwix  in  1784.  South  of  the  river  the  land  belonged  to  the Province  of  Pennsylvania,  having  been  acquired  at  the  treaty of  176S.  

In  this  year  Shawana  Ben,  a  friendly  Indian,  and  Ne-wah-lee-ka,  a  Muncy  chief  of  some  prominence,  were  living  on  the  Island.  It  was  called  MccJieek-Menatey  by  the Delaware  Indians,  which  meant  Great  Island  in  their  language. "  - "History of the Great Island and William Dunn, its owner, and founder of Dunnstown" By  JOHN  F.  MEGINNESS

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Maj. Thomas Nichols is buried at Pine Creek Cemetery in Jersey Shore.  [or at least, there is a military stone memorializing him there - it may not be his actual grave]

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1916 

John H. Chatham Commemorates Shawanna In a Poem:

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In Shore Lines

A Column by J. Cox

In the Lock Haven Express, 1965

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Indians will come to the Fourth of July celebration at Jersey Shore, recalling the arrival there of Princess Shawana during the 125th anniversary observance of the borough's incorporation, a week-long festivity held in 1951. Princess Shawana was a local girl, of course, Edith Lauler, who looked very lovely in her Indian attire. Every one know how the name was chosen, but we have often wondered how the father of the original Shawana, Old Nichols, got his name. Now Colonel Shoemaker lets us know. In his book, Eldorado Found, a Tourist's Survey of the Central Pennsylvania Highlands, published in 1917, he says: "Leaving Jersey Shore and proceeding in a northwesterly direction until Tiadaghton is reached, a stop should be made at the home of John F.

Knepley, erstwhile pupils of Ole Bull and a great authority on Indian lore. "This grand old man, who was born the same year as J. Pierpont Morgan, 1837, will be glad to escort tourists to the spot on Nichols Run, nearby, where is buried Shawana, the last Indian girl of the West Branch Valley, who died in 1850. "Shawana was one of the two daughters of Old Nichols a one-eyed Seneca Indian who came to the West Branch Valley every autumn and remained there until spring, supporting his family by basket-making and doing chores for the farmers. He spent tile summers on the Allegheny Reservation in New York.

"He was a native of the West Branch Valley, taking his name from Major James Nichols, one of the signers of the famous Fort Horn Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776, whose body: servant he had been. "The aged Indian was known as Old Nicholas to many, but his proper name was Nichols. After the death of his daughter, who was carried off by a sudden attack of pneumonia, he left the West Branch with his surviving daughter, lona, never to return." Another place name which has interested many is also explained by Colonel Shoemaker. "Antes Creek rises from a fine spring on the estate of the late George L. Sanderson, called Lochabar.

The name of this place signifies Lake of the Horns, being the name of a small lake in the Scottish Highlands, where the deer were in the habit of shedding their antlers." The colonel does not tell us, however, the origin and significance of the following, which we found in a book of old Scottish sayings: "As keen as a new Lochabar axe." Colonel Shoemaker again refers to that famous document as the Fort Horn Declaration of Independence in his chapter on Clinton County in Eldorado Found. "The frontiersmen, fearing that the Continental Congress would fail to cut loose from the British yoke, assembled at at the  stockade of Samuel Horn and declared themselves no longer bound by their foreign overlords. The document, written in the back pages of a family Bible, is said to have been buried in the stockade in an ironbound chest." Railroad tracks now run over the site of Fort Horn. The soil nearby was searched by mine-detectors not too long ago in hope of finding a metal box of some sort in which the declaration might have been buried, but all that turned up was a railroad spike or two and bits of homemade pottery baked from day that likely contained iron, being deep red inside. Later the colonel spoke of the Tiadaghton Elm as the site of the declaration.

A stranger driving through Jersey Shore last week asked the way to Reno, and the astute manager of the dime store, Philip Schneider, realized he meant Renovo. The colonel does not tell us that Renovo means "I renew!" but he does set forth a story about another place name. "East of Renovo is North Bend, formerly Young- Woman's Town, built a the mouth of Youngwoman's Creek. This fine stream received its name from Mary Wolford, a beautiful pioneer girl who was drowned in the creek while escaping from Indians who were taking her as a captive to Chief Bald Eagle about 1779. "According to C.

Adolphe Shurr, a well-known Clinton County sportsman, wild pigeons nested at the head of Youngwoman's Creek as late as 1892. On the tableland about Young Woman's Town a colony of New Church followers was planted about 1885."