The inscription on his monument reads:

"Chief of the Seneca Tribe, and a principal Chief of the Six Nations, from the period of the Revolutionary War to the time of his death. Distinguished for talents, courage, eloquence and sobriety, and love of his tribe and race, to whose welfare he devoted his time, his energies and his means, during a long and eventful life."

Born around 1750 in Avon, NY, his mother was of the Seneca nation, Wolf Clan. The individual's clan association was significant in the Seneca social and cultural life. Seneca tradition dictates that your clan is inherited from your mother, Cornplanter followed this tradition.

His father was a Dutchman named John Abeel, which was altered through mispronunciation to O'Bail. Cornplanter took this American form of his fathers name for the rest of his life. During a Revolutionary War raid, Cornplanter captured his father. He offered his father two choices to remain with him or return to his white family, John Abeel chose to return to his farm. This would be the last time the two would meet.

His childhood name would be equivalent to "Johnny", but because of his dedication to improving farming methods for the Seneca Nation he became known as Cornplanter. Later in life he became a strong leader and became a Head Warrior for his deeds without being a descendent of a Seneca Chief.

In 1777, Cornplanter emerged as a War Chief of the Iroquois Confederacy. In the 1780's he became a negotiator in the peace treaty between the Iroquois Confederacy and the United States Government.

In the 1790's Cornplanter protested the influx of white settlers onto the Iroquois lands which resulted in a land grant to himself and his heirs for perpetuity.

In 1960, ancestors of Cornplanter lived on this ancestral land near the headwaters of the Allegheny River. This was the land given to Cornplanter and his heirs for services to the United States after the Revolutionary War. A dam was being proposed to control flooding of the Allegheny River - fifty families would soon learn that their land stood in the way of the proposed Kinzua Dam and Allegheny Reservoir project.

Cornplanter's ancestors resisted the construction of the proposed dam that would flood the land where they lived and buried their families for over a hundred years. Although the land had been given to Cornplanter's descendents in perpetuity; finally to proceed with the project, the land was taken by eminent domain. This was the last Indian land in Pennsylvania. The Seneca Nation took the Army Corp of Engineers all the way to the Supreme Court, but the wheels set in motion could not be reversed.

Town and villages were flooded; Cornplanters Grave was re-located to Riverside Cemetery, his obelisk visible to boaters on the Allegheny Reservoir - his legacy forever written in the hills and valleys of Kinzua.

Directions to Chief Cornplanters Grave:

Travel North on 59 to Marshburg and make a left on 321 North which follows the reservoir around Willow Bay and eventually comes to a stop sign. With the reservoir on the left side of 321, make a left at the stop sign and travel a short ways. Turn left onto a small blacktop gated road and you'll notice a black and white small cemetery sign. Jump out the the car and walk up a little path through the woods and there is a small fenced cemetery that is well kept overlooking Willow Bay. There are many very old graves and Philip Tome's grave (Great Hunter and friend of Cornplanter) is next to the monument marking the resting place of Chief Cornplanter. You will more than likely see trinkets and various times left by the descendants of the Chief. Please close the gate when you leave!