for military purposes and are now the acknowledged national highways. The most noted of these was the old Catawba or Cherokee trail, leading from the Carolinas through Virginia and Western Pennsylvania to Canada. This was intersected by the "Warrior" Trail, which started in Kentucky and joined the Cherokee path in Fayette Co.

The French built the first forts which afterwards were taken by the English and later became the sites of the present towns and villages; Franklin occupies one of these -it was first known as the Village of the Wolf. In 1887 the United States Troops built Fort Franklin on this site and named it for Benjamin Franklin. The town of Franklin situated at the confluence of the French Creek and the Allegheny River, was laid out in 1795 by William Irvine and 'Andrew Ellicott. The Indian name for the town was Weningo. Fort Le Bouf was built about 1754. Allegheny County at first embraced about all of the Western part of the state, and was occupied successively by the French, English and Americans. The name comes from the Allegewe tribe of Indians that occupied this section of the county prior to the coming of the Iroquois or Six Nations the "Romans of America".

CORNPLANTER

John O'Bail alias Cornplanter was a distinguished chief of the Seneca Tribe of Indians, one of the powerful "Six Nations." He was a half breed who fought valiantly with the French and later with the British. After the defeat and surrender of Cornwallis he accepted the situation philosophically and made friends with the Colonists and heroically maintained his allegiance thereto during the remainder of his life, rendering valuable assistance during the Indian Wars of 1790-94. He gave valuable aid by protecting the western frontiers. For these and other services he was given large tracts of land-he selected for himself a farm about fourteen miles north of Warren, Pennsylvania, where he lived until March 17th, 1836, when he died aged upwards of a hundred years. The Pennsyl

vania Legislature passed an act by which a monument was erected to his memory in grateful recognition of his long and faithful services to the state of his adoption.

Many interesting stories are told of Cornplanter. Mrs. Harriett Howe well remembers hearing her uncle, Isaac Siggins, relate many reminiscences of this old Indian warrior; he frequently spoke of his great interest in the welfare of his Tribal Brothers, the Senecas. He was a strong advocate of Temperance and bitterly opposed the sale of "Fire Water" to the Indians. In order to lay this matter before the Governor and ask his co-operation in protecting them against this evil, he journeyed all the way on foot from his home on the Allegheny just below Hickory Town to the State Capital and back again. Perhaps if the Governor had taken the advice of this wise old chief, the History of Pennsylvania from that time on might have been quite different reading from the story as it stands recorded to-day. Certain it is that the settlers would have fared better and been far safer if they had heeded the advice of men. like Cornplanter and Penn.

Six miles below Franklin, Pennsylvania, on the East side of the Allegheny River stands the "Indian God Rock" keeping guard over the secrets of the Red man, as enacted there when they were the sole possessors of the soil and monarchs of all they beheld. It stands near the shore and is fully twenty feet in length; its upper end rests on the bank but its huge bulk stands out in bold relief; its upper side is completely covered with Indian hieroglyphics and symbols, such as turtles, snakes and other animals, arrows, representations of the sun, etc., etc. It was the superstitious belief of the early Indian inhabitants that any one who could walk its length unaided would live a hundred years. Cornplanter it was said performed this feat although it would seem impossible of accomplishment so nearly perpendicular does it stand; for reward he claimed his full quota of years which nature generously granted with some eight or ten to spare.

The progress of the twentieth century is playing havoc

with the old land marks of Warren County. One of these, the Cornplanter Hotel, was built by Dr. William A. Irvine on the flat near the town of Irvineton. It was built of native slate stone; was massive in appearance and far surpassed the other buildings of the neighborhood. It is rapidly becoming demolished and will soon exist only in memory. It stood on the East side of the road near the River and was built about 1843. A man by the name of Foreman kept the hotel for many years.

Few names are more distinguished in the frontier history of Pennsylvania than that of Cornplanter. His Indian name was Ga-nio-di-euh, or Handsome Lake. He was born at Conewangus on the Genessee River: being a half breed, the son of a white man, named John O'Bail, a trader from the Mohawk Valley. In 1779 in one of the Indian raids in which Cornplanter participated, one of the prisoners taken chanced to be his father. He said to him, "I am your son; you are my father-you are my prisoner and subject to the customs of Indian warfare but your life shall be spared if you choose to follow the fortunes of your son. I will cherish and protect thee, but if you wish to return to your white friends, I will send a party of my trusted young men to conduct you hence." O'Bail preferred to return and was taken safely back to Albany.

Notwithstanding his bitter hostility while the war continued, once the hatchet was buried, he at once became the friend and ally of the Colonists and through his influence with the Indians brought about amicable settlement of many of their differences. He entertained the highest respect for Washington, "the Great Counsellor of the Thirteen Fires" and often visited him during his presidency on business for his tribe.

His speeches on these occasions exhibit both his talent in composition and his adroitness in diplomacy. Washington fully reciprocated his respect and friendship. They had fought against each other on the disastrous day of Braddock's field. Both were then young men. More than 40 years afterwards, when Washington was about retiring