Painted Post Memorial

Painted Post Memorial. . , During the Colonial period the valleys of the Chemung River tributaries comprised the domain of the Senecas. This unit of the Iroquois Confederacy was called a door of the Six Nations through which passed communications with the west and the south., The Border Wars brought the White Man into this region. Visitors to this area during the American Revolution found on this site an oak post which was square to a height of 4 feet and then octagonal to the top. The surface was painted red and decorated with 28 black figures without any heads and 30 black figures with heads on. Numerous allusions to the painted post regarded it as a memorial to a fallen chieftain, a marker for assemblies, and a war post around which dances were held., The original post endowed this place with a name which will endure as long as recorded history. By 1808 the first namesake had disintegrated and a fitting substitute was deemed necessary. In 1824 Capt. Samuel Erwin commissioned John Wygant to fashion a symbol for the site of the painted post. This memorial was carved from sheet iron and depicted an Indian tribesman attired in head dress, jacket and leggings. For half a century this quaint figure swung on a pole near the place where the first post stood., In 1880 a second sheet iron Indian was erected at the southeast corner of Water and Hamilton Streets. This life size figure represented a chief dressed in a red jacket and buckskin trousers and equipped with a bow and tomahawk. The warrior was attached to the top of a tapered octagonal post which was 18 feet high and painted red. This symbol served as a landmark for 4 decades. A later memorial supplanted this figure which was removed after W. War 1., In the summer of 1893 a subscription was circulated for the construction of a stone monument surmounted by the metal replica of an Indian chief. This memorial was dedicated June 21, 1894. The purposes for which it was erected were inscribed on its face: , "To perpetuate the name of , Painted Post , preserve its traditions , and honor the memory of , its early settlers". , On Nov. 20, 1948 a violent wind toppled the chief from his pedestal and shattered the figure. At a town meeting held Apr. 7, 1949 citizens of the Village of Painted Post and Town of Erwin approved a proposal to replace the damaged monument. This memorial was modeled by Norman B. Phelps and erected in 1950 by popular subscription to commemorate the founding of Painted Post and to preserve for posterity the traditions of its heritage.