Editing Painted Post, New York (section)

== History ==
[[Image:Victorian era house in Painted Post, New York.JPG|thumb|Victorian-era house on the corner of Water and Charles streets in Painted Post]]

The Senecas never had a painted post but rather the post that existed in the Painted Post area was not "painted". The plain post had been used as a type of bulletin board and when the white settlers moved into the area they painted it. To paint this post was desecration to the Seneca people. The Seneca language word for the area was TKäen DōD, meaning "land of the post".<ref>{{cite web |last1=Boy Scouts of America |first1=Five Rivers Council |title=Order of the Arrow Lodge History |url=http://www.fiverivers.org/join-us/order-of-the-arrow-tkaumlen-dotilded-lodge-30/order-of-the-arrow-lodge-history/55864|website=fiverivers.org|publisher=Order of the Arrow|access-date=July 27, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190814061639/http://www.fiverivers.org/join-us/order-of-the-arrow-tkaumlen-dotilded-lodge-30/order-of-the-arrow-lodge-history/55864|archive-date=August 14, 2019|url-status=dead}}</ref>

According to village records, Painted Post was established as a village in 1803.{{citation needed|date=October 2023}} The Erwin brothers are considered the first wealthy European descended settlers to have settled in the Painted Post area in the late 18th century (Painted Post village is in the town of Erwin, named for the brothers and incorporated in 1796). The brothers' 4 mansions are still standing. There are maps in existence dated 1796 which include Painted Post. The village was first incorporated in 1860 and officially re-incorporated in 1893. The name is derived from a historic, although probably unpainted, wooden post seen in the area at the end of the 18th century. The origin and purpose of the post remain controversial. A glyph of the post is visible on the aforementioned 1796 map.

The following footnote appears in French's Gazetteer of New York State<ref>{{cite book |title=Historical and Statistical Gazetteer of New York State |last=French |first=J.H. |year=1860|publisher=R. Pearsall Smith |location=Syracuse, NY }}</ref> and gives two possible versions of the origin of the name:

<blockquote>In the summer of 1779, a party of tories and Indians, under the command of a loyalist named McDonald, returned from an incursion into the Susquehanna settlements, bringing with them many of their number wounded. At the confluence of [[Tioga River (Chemung River)|Tioga]] and [[Cohocton River|Conhocton]] {{sic}} Rivers, Captain Montour, son of the famous [[Catherine Montour|Queen Catharine]], a Seneca chief of great promise, died of his wounds. "His comrades buried him by the riverside, and planted above his grave a post on which were painted various symbols and rude devices. This monument was known throughout the Genesee Forests as 'The Painted Post.' It was a landmark well known to all the [[Iroquois|Six Nations]], and was often visited by their braves and chieftains." This account of the origin of the Painted Post was given to Benj. Patterson, the hunter, by a man named Taggart, who was carried to Fort Niagara a prisoner by McDonald's party, end was a witness of the burial of Capt. Montour, or at least was in the encampment at the mouth of the Tioga at the time of his death. Col. Harper, of Harpersfield, the well known officer of the frontier militia of New York in the Revolution, informed Judge Knox, of Knoxville, in this co., that the Painted Post was erected over the grave of a chief who was wounded at the battle of the "Hog-Back" and brought in a canoe to the head of the Chemung, where he died. It was well understood by the early settlers that this monument was erected in memory of some distinguished warrior who had been wounded in one of the border battles of the [[American Revolutionary War|Revolution]] and afterward died at this place. The post stood for many years after the settlement of the co.; and the story goes that it rotted down at the butt, and was preserved in the bar-room of a tavern till about the year 1810 and then mysteriously disappeared. It is also said to have been swept away in a freshet. — McMasters's Hist, of Steuben. Simm's Hist, Schoharie, p. 333.</blockquote>

In June 1972 the remnants of [[Hurricane Agnes]] stalled over the New York–Pennsylvania border, dropping up to 20&nbsp;inches (500&nbsp;mm) of rain into the Chemung Valley, which was among the worst hit areas by the resultant flooding.  The Chemung, Tioga, and Cohocton rivers all overflowed their banks, leaving widespread areas of Painted Post as well as Corning, [[Big Flats (town), New York|Big Flats]], and [[Elmira, New York|Elmira]] under water and destroying many bridges.

Painted Post is featured in the [[Stephen Vincent Benét]] poem "American Names".{{citation needed|date=October 2023}}

The [[First Baptist Church of Painted Post]], [[Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad Station (Painted Post, New York)|Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad Station]], and [[United States Post Office (Painted Post, New York)|United States Post Office]] are listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]].<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|2009a}}</ref> The Painted Post post office contains a mural, ''Recording the Victory'', painted by muralist [[Amy Jones (artist)|Amy Jones]] in 1939. Federally-commissioned murals were produced from 1934 to 1943 in the United States through the [[Section of Painting and Sculpture]], later called the [[Section of Fine Arts]], of the [[United States Department of the Treasury|Treasury Department]].