Queen Aliquippa
Posted by: 
Kordite
N 40° 21.589 W 079° 49.998
17T E 599065 N 4468347
Market located on Bowman Avenue in McKeesport.
Waymark Code: WM411
Location: Pennsylvania, United States
Date Posted: 11/22/2005
Views: 141
The marker reads: "An influential leader of the Seneca Nation in this area and ally of the British during the time of the French & Indian War. Encamped near here when George Washington paid respects to her, 1753. Died, 1754; according to legend, buried nearby."
In fact, most of what is known about Queen Aliquippa is more legend than fact. She may have been born in New York in 1685 but some stories have her younger, being born in 1701. How she came to lead her tribe of about 30 families is also uncertain but by the 1730's she was a respected ruler. Many communities along the Monongahela, Youghiogheny and Ohio Rivers have legends of her camping nearby.
In January of 1754, a 20 year-old Major George Washington was returning from a failed negotiation with the French at what is now Erie to find that Queen Aliquippa was angry that this British emissary had neglected to pay her a visit on his way north. Washington visited her encampment at McKeesport. "I made her a Present of a Match Coat; & a Bottle of rum, which was thought much the better present of the two."
Aliquippa and her son were with Washington again six months later at Great Meadows (Ft. Necessity).
At over 80 years old, she died on December 23, 1754 at Augswich (present day Shirleysburg, Huntingdon County).
Marker Name: Queen Aliquippa
County: Allegheny
Date Dedicated: 01/01/2003
Marker Type: Roadside
Location: Bowman Avenue, McKeesport
Category: French & Indian War, George Washington, Native American, Women
Website: [Web Link]
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