VOL. II.

WENEKAHEMEN

Or Joseph Nutimus, Chief of the Fork Indians and King of Nescopeck-Supposed to be Responsible for the Moravian Massacre of 1755.

[Contributed by C. F. Hill.] Joseph Nutimus was a Delaware Indian and chief of the tribe known as the Fork Indians, and later in life was known as Old King Natimus. His home for many years was at the mouth of the Nescopeck Creek where the town of Nescopeck now stands. The term of his occupation of Nescopeck was between the years of 1742 and 1763. The earliest reference to him is made by James Logan, Esq., in a letter bearing date Stenton, 7th, 4th, 1733, to Thomas Penn, Esq., in which he speaks of an expected visit from Nutimus and his company, with a present and apprehends trouble, and closes by stating "that they left a bag of bullets last year." In a later letter dated Aug. 22, 1733, Logan acknowledges that Nutimus has lands in the forks of the Delaware and Lehigh River above Durham. The Lehigh River at that time was also known as the western branch of the Delaware River, and the tribes located on the lands between these two streams and where Easton now stands, were known as the Fork Indians.

This was the original dominion of King Natimas, where he held undisputed sway, subject only to such allegiance as he owed to the Six Nations, until the famous walking purchase took place in 1737, the history of which is too long for the purposes of this notice, and which, contrary to the expectation of the Fork Indians, extended far beyond their meaning of a day and a half walk and included the Fork lands. Edward Marshall, a trained pedestrian, did the walking. Natimus and his people were disappointed, chagrined and angry and were ready for retaliation. Settlers at once flocked in upon his lands and settled among his people, while they obstinately and with much insolence held their ground.

After five years of unhappy dispute as to who should occupy these lands, complaint was made by the people of Pennsylvania to the Six Nations, which resulted in a council being called at Philadelphia July 12, 1742, at which Cannassatego, a Sachem of the Six Nations, delivered his famous speech to the

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complaining Delawares, and cites to them deeds made by their fathers more than 50 years ago for these same lands and later deeds and releases made by themselves, several of which, in fact, were signed by Nutimus himself. Cannassatego was throughly disgusted with their action and tells them they should be taken by the hair of their heads and shaken until they have some sense, that their cause is bad and their hearts far from being upright, and that the land they claim has been sold and gone down their throats, and that now like children they want it again, and closes by delivering a peremptory order to leave at once and go to the Susquehanna.

No doubt Nutimus was both reluctant and slow to obey, but in due time we find him and his people located at Nescopeck, which place, if he took the most convenient route, he reached by the path which led from the Lehigh Gap, in the Blue Mountains, across the Mauch Chunk Mountain, crossing the Quakake Valley and the Buck Mountain west from Hazleton, near Audenried, passing near the famous Sugarloaf in Conyngham Valley, to the mouth or the Nescopock Creek, where he settled on the present site of the town of Nescopeck, on a level fertile soil, the forest being of such a character as to yield readily to the Indian method of clearing land, by removing the small trees, and girdling the larger.

Nothing occurred to bring Nutimus and his people to notice in their new home until the breaking out of the French and Indian war. A spirit of unrest and disquiet now came over the Delaware Indians on the Susquehanna. (It was Dow important to cultivate the friendship of the Delawares. Accordingly Gov. Hamilton sent Conrad Weiser among them with conciliatory messages, who writes, May, 1754:

"On April 30 I arrived at Shamokin and sent my sou Samuel and James Logan, Shikellimy's son, up the north branch with the message to Nutimus at Nescopeck. Upon their return they report Old Nutimus was from home, but the rest of the Indians received the message very kindly and said they would lay it before Nutimus and the rest of the Indians after they should come home.") Gen. Braddock was defeated by the French and Indians July 9, 1757, on the