Cornplanter (Corn Plant)

Chief of the Seneca,
Son of John Abeel and the Indian Princess, Alquipiso

     Corn Plant (usually, but improperly spelled Cornplanter) was one of the most unique characters in American history, and it appears somewhat strange that after a lapse of a century or more the true history of his parentage should now for the first time be brought to light, proving beyond a doubt that he was a grandson of one of Albany's most distinguished mayors. There may have been an effort on the part of those interested to cover up the facts at the time by permitting a misspelling the name which has passed into history as O'Bail (easily mistaken for Abeel), but Corn Plant's own statement to the Governor of Pennsylvania in 1836, in which he gives an account of his early life (omitting the name of his father), confirms the newly discovered evidence of his parentage. He says:

     "I feel it my duty to send a speech to the Governor of Pennsylvania at this time and inform him of the place where I was born, which was at Connewaugus, on the Genesee River.
     "When I was a child, I played with the butterfly, the grasshopper and the frogs, and as I grew up I began to pay some attention and play with the Indian boys in the neighborhood, and they took notice of my skin being a different color from theirs and spoke about it.
     I inquired of my mother the cause, and she told me that my father was a
resident of Albany.
     I still eat my victuals out of a bark dish.
     I grew up to be a young man and married me a wife, and I had no kettle
or gun.
     I then knew where my father lived, and went to see him, and found he was
a white man and spoke the English language.
     He gave me victuals while at his house, but when I started home he gave
me no provision to eat on the way.
     He gave me neither kettle nor gun, neither did he tell me that the United States were about to rebel against the Government of England.
     "I will now tell you, brothers who are in session of the Legislature of Pennsylvania, that the Great Spirit has made known to me that I have been wicked and the cause thereof has been the Revolutionary war in America. The cause of Indians being led into sin at that time, was that many of them were in the practice of drinking and getting intoxicated.
     Great Britain requested us to join with them in the conflict against the Americans, and promised the Indians land and liquor. I myself was opposed to joining in the conflict, as I had nothing to do with the difficulty that existed between the two parties.
     I have now informed you how it happened that the Indians took part in the revolution, and will relate to you some circumstances that occurred after the war.

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Abeel and Allied Families

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