Legend has it that Conrad Weiser, Indian agent-interpreter, and Chief Shikellamy both had a dream. The chief was envious of Weiser’s rifle, and Weiser was envious of a beautiful island that was located between Penns Creek and the Susquehanna River. It was known as the Isle of Que.
The men made a deal, and Weiser got his island paradise.
Although this is probably mere fiction, it is true that old Weiser once owned the Isle of Que as had two generations of his direct descendants.
It always has been a mystery as to what the “Que” in Isle of Que meant. We do know the Isle of Que was a favorite place with the Indians more than 250 years ago. The Isle of Que’s name was once assumed to have been given by the French traders who descended to the Susquehanna from Canada to traffic with the Indians of this neighborhood. Research reveals that Indian tribes of the area became known by the French as the Andastes, and later on, they were known to the English as Susquehannocks. The Swedes and Dutch called them the Minquas and also the Delawares of the Lenni Lenape.
During this early period, at the beginning of the 18th century, game was plentiful in the forests of the isle, and there was an abundance of fish in the river. According to history, this area was considered unhealthy at a certain season of the year, and the Indians generally left this low-lying area at the beginning of August and remained in the hilly country until the leaves fell. Malaria was particularly fatal to their children, so they were carefully kept in these high mountain retreats.
The general burying ground of the Indians was on the Isle of Que’s southern boundary and must have contained hundreds if not thousands of skeletons in an area over a quarter of a mile in length and breadth.
The first white settler on the Isle of Que is believed to have been Christian Fisher in 1791. In the digging for the foundation of Fisher’s house, seven skeletons were found, a number of stone hatchets, arrowheads, stone knives and fragments of pottery. Fisher started populating the isle by dividing the land into small farms, all of which showed signs of an Indian burial ground as the area was being developed.
Even in Fisher’s time, the explanation of the isle’s name remained a mystery. “Que” in French is a conjunction that means “what,” but it’s doubtful the French would use a conjunction or an interjection to designate a geographic area or place, such as the Isle of What? It also has been noted that the Indian provenance of the word “que” is in letters that appear in Susquehanna, Nesquehoning, Quemahoning and perhaps other Indian languages.
The que in Susquehanna means “muddy,” Nesquehoning means “dirty lick” and Quemahoning signifies “pine tree lick.” Since the island was supposed to have been covered with pines, Charles Fisher Snyder would argue that the meaning is the Isle of Pines.
Could there possibility be a clue in an entry in Conrad Weiser’s journal of July 29, 1745, in which the Mohawks told him about alarm among the Mohawks: “The dead cry was heard everywhere, Que, Que, Que.” Could the Isle of Que mean the Isle of the Dead? After all, there was a considerably large Indian burial ground on the Isle of Que at the lower end. If their interpretation of the cry of death is “que,” that last idea is quite possibly the answer.
n Jane Kessler is a lifetime member of the Snyder County Historical Society, 30 E. Market St., Middleburg. The library is available for research from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays and 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Sundays. For information, call 837-6191 or visit schs@snydercounty.org. “Once Upon A Time In ....” is a Monday feature provided by the historical societies in Union, Montour, Northumberland and Snyder counties. The columns focus on people, places and objects of historical significance in those counties.
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Was the Isle of Que really Isle of Dead?
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