Teaoga & Queen Esther's Town - PLAQUE
Athens Township, Bradford County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Teaoga. A watch town, the south door of the Iroquois House was situated at the meeting of the rivers 200 rods to the northeast. Queen Esther's Town of the Delaware Indians was 100 rods to the east along the Chemung River banks. Both towns were destroyed by Colonel Thomas Hartley and his troops Sept. 27, 1778. These flats for 5 miles known as Queen Esther's Flats were grazing ground for their herds.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Where the Chemung meets the Susquehanna stood Teaoga, a Iroquois watch post guarding the southern approach to the confederacy's territory, and nearby the Delaware settlement remembered as Queen Esther's Town. The broad river flats were rich grazing land, but in September 1778 — amid the frontier warfare of the Revolution — Colonel Thomas Hartley's expedition swept up the valley and burned both towns. These raids were part of the escalating cycle of retaliation between Continental forces and Britain's Iroquois allies on the Pennsylvania frontier.
Why it matters
It marks a Native homeland at the meeting of two rivers and the Revolution's brutal frontier campaigns that erased it, a story of the war's cost to Indigenous nations too often left out of the national narrative.
Plan your visit
NearbyMake a day of it — museums, food, and places to stay near this marker.
Museums & culture
- Tioga Point Museum2.2 mi away
- Sayre Historical Society4.3 mi away
- S.R.A.C. Susquehanna River Archaeological Center5.7 mi away · 343 Broad Street, Waverly, NY
Food & drink
- Maple Lawn Dairy14.8 mi away · 3162 Lower Maple Avenue
Places to stay
- Comfort Inn4.3 mi away · 2160 Elmira Street, Sayre, PA
- Candlewood Suites4.8 mi away · 2775 North Elmira Street, Sayre, PA
- Hampton Inn Sayre5.1 mi away · 3080 Elmira Street, Sayre, PA
- Econo Lodge5.4 mi away · Spring Street, Sayre, PA
Places data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Hours and details change — call ahead.
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Related people
- · Colonel Thomas Hartley
- · Queen Esther
Related events
- · Hartley Expedition of 1778
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Fort Sullivan
Athens, PA · est. 1947
On August 18, 1779, General John Sullivan raised a fort on the high ground between the Chemung and Susquehanna rivers, commanding both waterways at once. With a supporting camp on the flats below, the post became the launching point for Sullivan's expedition into central New York — a scorched-earth campaign that broke the military power of the Tory and Iroquois alliance allied with Britain. The fort's brief life belied its role in one of the Revolution's most consequential frontier operations.
Sullivan Expedition Against the Iroquois Indians, 1779 - Teaoga (PLAQUE)
Athens, PA · est. 1929
Teaoga was a key Iroquois village at the forks of the rivers, and in August 1779 it became the staging ground for General John Sullivan's army during its campaign against the Six Nations. From roughly August 11 to 26 the Continental force encamped near here before pressing deeper into Iroquois country. This marker fixes the village's site relative to that fateful summer of the Sullivan Expedition.
Sullivan Expedition Against the Iroquois Indians, 1779 - Sheshecunnunck (PLAQUE)
Sheshequin Township, PA · est. 1929
In August 1779 General John Sullivan marched his Continental army up the Susquehanna Valley on a campaign to break the power of the Iroquois Confederacy, which had raided frontier settlements as Britain's allies. On the night of August 10 the army made its seventh and final encampment before reaching Teaoga on these river lowlands at Sheshecunnunck. The march was one leg of a systematic expedition that would destroy dozens of Iroquois towns and cornfields.
Sullivan's March
Ulster Township, PA · est. 1949
In August 1779, General John Sullivan led a Continental Army expedition up the Susquehanna Valley, camping on the Sheshequin Flats below this point on the ninth and tenth before pressing on to Tioga Point. This was the seventh and final overnight stop of a hard march into Iroquois country. Sullivan's campaign, ordered by George Washington, aimed to break the power of the Six Nations who had allied with the British on the frontier.