The Lenape were 8000 strong before contact with the European settlers in 1600, but by the time of America's War for Independence, they had been forcibly removed from the region.
In 1775, records share the story of the "Last Lenape" in Bucks County, Isaac Stille who left Holicong in Buckingham with 40 to 60 Lenape to head for the Wabash Region of Indiana away from "war and rum".
But if Isaac Stille and his followers were among the last Lenape to leave the region, who were the first?
Between 1734 and 1737, negotiations were held between the Lenape and the Pennsylvania Government, to buy a parcel of land in the area that would become Bucks County. They met at Durham Furnace but the government would not meet their price. A year later at Pennsbury Manor the government tried to convince the Lenape that they had already sold the land to William Penn. Finally in 1737 the infamous "Walking Purchase" deal was agreed upon at Stenton and signed by the Lenape leaders including: Nutimus, Monikyhiccon, Lapowinzo, and Tishecunk to Stenton.
However the deal agreed upon stipulated the amount of land a man could walk in a day and a half. The Pennsylvania representatives instead trained their walkers to do it in a run, covering the agreed upon territory at the end of the first day and continuing on to secure four times the land agreed upon.
Forcible Removal of the Lenape from the Region
The Lenape filed a formal complaint with Chief Justice Langhorne of Bucks County. At a meeting in Philadelpha in 1742, Nutimus presented his case of the fradulent walking purchase to The Pennsylvania Representatives and Representatives from the Iroquois Nation (who had recently signed a treaty with the Commonwealth to sell the land out from under the Lenape). In response, Canasatego, the Iroquois chief, pronounced sentence.
"Cousins," he said, "How came you to take upon you to Sell Land at all? We conquered You, we made Women of you. You know you are Women, and can no more sell Land than Women. Nor is it fit you should have the power of selling Lands since you would abuse it... What makes you sell land in the dark? Did we ever receive any Part, even the Value of a Pipe Shank, from you for it? For all these reasons, we charge You to remove instantly. We don't give you the liberty to think about it."
Meeting with Benjamin Franklin and the Iroquois Nation, Albany Congress, 1754.
Many of the Lenape were forced to relocate from what would become Bucks and Northampton Counties to the Susquehanna River at present day Wyoming (under the first A of Pennsylvania on the following map) on the western edge of the Walking Purchase lands. From there they moved gradually down the river, living for a while at Beaver.
Some remained, women who had married into colonial families as well as men who petitioned the government in 1742 to live at the area near the Forks of the Delaware. This was granted if they agree to be Christianized. Some did, such as Tunda Tatamy who turned to western religion, baptized Moses Tatamy, and sought a formal warrant from the Crown for 300 acres of land.
The Moravians built a mission called Gnadenhutten on the western edge of the Walking Purchase lands and began to proselytize the relocated Lenape. They baptized the Lenape leader Teedyuscung in March of 1750 as well as his half brother Weshichagechive who took the name Christian name, Nicodemas.
But Teedyuscung, a descendant of Nutimus, was bitter about the treatment of his people and he did not take a Christian name. In 1750 Nutimus himself came to the mission from Nescopek on the Susquehanna and tried to get Teedyuscung to return to the old ways, which he did in the spring of 1754.
From King of the Delawares:Teedyuscung, an imagining of Teedyuscung from written descriptions, 1700-1763. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
In 1751, at the invitation of the Wyandot (Huron), the Delaware, along with the Munsee and Mahican who had also been driven out of the east, the Lenape began to settle in Eastern Ohio, principally along the Muskingum River and other streams. (Tregillis)
In 1754 the Seven Years War began, with the French fighting the British in the Americas, and the indigeneous populations choosing their respective sides of the fight.
An engraving by artist John McNevin, Artist and engraver Henry Bryan Hall (1808-1884) depicting the evening council of George Washington at Fort Necessity issued in 1856. The Darlington Collection of Engravings at the University of Pittsburgh
After British General Braddock was defeated, many of the Delaware and Shawnees joined the French in the war in October of 1755 with the promise of land and sovereignty. Under Teedyuscung, over the next year, they killed, burned and terrorized settlers in Easton, Bethlehem, Nazereth and Northampton.
In a surprise attack on Christmas Eve, a dozen Delaware burned the Moravian Mission, Gnadenhutten to the ground. But the reports offered an affadavit by converted lenape leader Moses Tatamy, through a message from Isaac Stille that worse was to come.
That on or about the 22nd of November last... that the gap of the mountain was then open and would remain so all the next day to give free passage for all the Indians in that neighborhood to return to the friends at Neskopecka, but that if they refuse this invitation, they would meet with the same nay, worse usage than the white people. That great numbers of the Allegheny, Shawanese, Mohawks, Tuscaroras and Delaware Indians had divided themselves into companies under their proper officers, and were determined to destroy the Back inhabitants of Pennsylvania, particularly the Minisinks, Forks of the Delaware, Tulpehocken and Swstarrow all in one day.
Over the course of the next few months attacks were led by the Delaware against the white settlers in Easton and Northampton and the white settlers against the Delaware Nation. Both sides were documented as burning, killing and scalping inciting terror among the Indigenous populations and the white settlers alike.
An account of an attack near Nazareth on white settlers where homes were burnt and people were killed, The Pennsylvania Gazette 1/22/1756
An extract from a letter from Easton about tracking and shooting at a lone "Indian" seen wandering at night, The Pennsylvania Gazette, 1/29/1756
An Extract from a Letter from Easton of an attack of white settlers on a "Party of Indians" whom they killed and scalped. The Pennsylvania Gazette 2/5/1756
The terror was so great that in March of 1756, the Governor of Pennsylvania put a price on the heads of Shingas and Captain Jacobs, two heads of the Delaware Nation leading these attacks.
Finally on April 14, 1756, Pennsylvania Governor declared War on the Delaware Nation.
His declaration was a violent one with prices set for the killing, scalping and capturing of not only the Delaware Nation men, but the women and children as well.
The Pennsylvania Gazette, 4/29/1756
November 1756 Conference in Easton
As the war continued an effort was made to negotiate a truce in November of 1756 in Easton, Pennsylvania. Over 500 representatives from the Native Nations attended including Teedyescung, The King of the Delawares with his friend Isaac Stille. Though reports showed that his suspicions kept him from the Peace Negotiations at first, until he was assured a welcome reception.
Teedyuscung began the Condolence Ceremony at the Treaty of Easton on November 13, 1756, in a traditional manner, by “metaphorically wip[ing] tears from Pennsylvanians’ eyes and blood from their bodies and from the ground…[before] he then proceeded to talk about the origins of the war.”
Addressing Governor William Denny, he declared, pounding his foot: “this very ground that is under me was my land and inheritance, and it is taken from me by fraud.”
Minutes from the Treaty of Easton, November 8, 1756, https://digitalcollections.tricolib.brynmawr.edu/object/hc1617
Teedyuscung then detailed the lands that had been improperly seized by the perpetrators of the Walking Purchase: “When I say this ground, I mean all the land between Tohiccon Creek and Wyoming on the Susquehanna.
Map made after the Treaty at Easton, 1756, in Chew Family Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.
Negotiations were renewed in July of 1757, but it wasn't until 1758 that a treaty was signed. Over 500 representatives from 13 indigenous Nations attended the Peace Negotiations in Easton.
The agreement promised the indigenous nations hunting/settlement rights west of the Susquehanna (Ohio/PA), recognition of their autonomy from the Iroquois and a reservation for those Lenape who wished to remain in New Jersey. In exchange, they ceded their eastern lands and allied themselves with the British in the war.
“The Treaty of Easton,” Our Land, Our Stories, accessed December 26, 2025, https://our-land-our-stories.libraries.rutgers.edu/items/show/200
Meanwhile in New Jersey... Indian Conferences were also held in Crosswicks from 1756 to 1758
At The Crosswicks Conference in February of 1758, thirty-nine Delawares met with New Jersey’s Indian Commissioners at Crosswicks. Here the Indians submitted a list of land grievances that the commissioners agreed to investigate and remedy.
Indian Representatives to Israel Pemberton, March 8, 1758, Bethel Indian Town Documents from the Friends Indian Committee
Members of the Crosswick nation, The Ancocus tribe, and the southern nations, as well as Teedyescung, king of the Delawares. George Hopayock, from the Susquehanah, Moses Tatamy from the Mountains, Tom Evans from Rariton as well as the representatives from Cranbury were in attendance. At this time the New Jersey Lenape, Isaac Stille (from Cranbury) and 4 others were appointed to serve as powers of attorney for the New Jersey natives.
Indian Representatives to Israel Pemberton, March 8, 1758, Bethel Indian Town Documents from the Friends Indian Committee
The result of the Crosswicks and Easton Conferences was the creation of Edgepillock (also spelled Agepelack), the 3,000 acre reservation created in south-central New Jersey, known as the first reservation in the colonies. 200 Native Americans settled at Brotherton and established a community around grist- and sawmills. John Brainerd, a Protestant minister, served as a missionary to the Indians at Edgepillock, which he referred to as Brotherton.
The lots at Edgepillock were assigned as follows: 1. William Wilolux 2. Thomas Lemons 3. Thomas Kekalah 4. Benjamin Store 5. Samuel More (moved to the Ohio country and was killed at Gnadenhutten, March 8, 1782) 6. Joseph Wooly 7. Philip Daniell 8. Jacob Skiket 9. vacant 10. Sarah Wickwealah (widow of Wequeheela) 11. William Wooley 12. Gabrill Mitop 13. vacant 14. Thomas Store 15. - 17. vacant 18. Jacob Daniell 19. Josiah Store 20. Ismail Slallomen 21. Isaac Swanulah
Isaac Stille
So how did Isaac Stille, a Lenape from New Jersey whose land claims extended from the Mouth of Great Egg Harbor river to the head branches thereof on the east side and to the road that leads to Egg Harbor to the sea side, come to be the last Lenape in Bucks County?
Through his skill as an interpreter, who could read and write, Stille became a noted member of many of the diplomatic parties westward. Armed with only a Diplomatic Passport and facility with language, custom and a level head.
In October, 1758 Stille was sent westward to treat with the Indigenous Nations and share the news of the 1758 Treaty of Easton with Christian Frederick Post. Their diplomatic party, included seven men: the Delaware Pisquetomen, a brother of Shingas and Tamaqua, and a guide for Post on his first journey west; Thomas Hickman a second interpreter; two representatives of the Iroquois league; and two white militia officers, John Bull and William Hays. The way was treacherous, and without an interpreter of great skill, all might have been killed.
An Account from the Journey
Project Gutenberg Book, early Western Travels 1748-1846 volume 1, edited by Reuben gold Thwaites, Cleveland Ohio, The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1904
In 1760, Stille was again sent as an interpreter with Christian Frederick Post and John Hays as well as Moses Tatamy and Teedyuscung to treat with the tribes. But they were forced to turn back out of fear for their lives.
Isaac Stille was present as an interpreter at the Conference at Easton in 1761, the purpose of which was to address land grievances and solidify alliances with the nations prresent against the French.
Minutes of conferences, held at Easton, in August, 1761. : With the chief sachems and warriors of the Onondagoes, Oneidas, Mohickons, Tuteloes, Cayugas, Nanticokes, Delawares, Conoys
One year later he was employed to interpret at the conference in Lancaster in August of 1762 with nations from the west including the Senecas, Onandagas, Cayugas, Oneidas and Conoys.
1763
In 1763 the seven year French and Indian War ended with the French ceding their North American Territories to the British. But even as this war was ending a new one had begun. Pontiac’s War (1763-66), a conflict between Native Americans and the British Empire, began in the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley.
James Claypoole, “The German Bleeds & Bears Ye Furs” (Philadelphia, 1764). Library Company of Philadelphia.
Within a few months, Native groups succeeded in overtaking at least eight other British outposts in the Great Lakes and Ohio Country regions. Fort Pitt remained in British hands, but Lenape (Delaware), Shawnees, and Mingos successfully besieged it for months and harassed its supply lines.
Conestoga Massacre, December 14, 1763
The Pennsylvania backcountry sent refugees to the city and Philadelphians were in a panic. Giving way to a group of white vigilantes, the “Paxton Boys,” who, determined to seek revenge against Indians, attacked the 20 residents of the Conestoga Indian Town. Six of the Conestoga were brutally murdered in their homes, and the remaining 14 people were killed while seeking shelter in a nearby workhouse.
Image magbottom Massacre of the Indians at Lancaster by the Paxton Boys in 1763, by John Wilmer, 1841.
Out of fear of further attacks many Pennsylvania Lenape moved westward. Others sought haven in New Jersey such as Hannah Freeman and her female family members who relocated to Woodbury New jersey from the Brandywine River for seven years from 1763 to 1770. Finally she was able to return home where she remained until she passed in the 1790s.
1764
During the French and Indian War many Lenape people relocated from Western Pennsylvania to Tuscarawas country in today’s Ohio. Gekelmukpechunk (“The water that is always still”) was the largest Delaware community here. It was also known as Newcomerstown after the Delaware leader Netawatwees, whose nickname was Newcomer. The town was home to about 600–700 people.
1767
Those living in Brotherton New Jersey were repeatedly invited to join their Brorthers in the west with regular letters being transported back and forth by Isaac Still and other Interpreters. While grateful they remained steadfast on the reservation.
Message from the Indians at Brotherton West Jersey to the Ohio Indians 1767, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting records, Haverford, PA
1769
Eventually some Jersey Delawares settled at Sheshequanink (Sheshequin), the site of the present village of Ulster, Pennsylvania including Isaac Stille and Joseph Peepy, both of whom had been in the service of the Province of Pennsylvania as messengers and interpreters.
Isaac Stille took possession of a 200 acre tract of land on the flats, donated him by the Proprietary Government for services rendered during the Indian wars in the capacity of runner and interpreter.
Land acquired, Stille returned to Brotherton and in response to yet another invitation from the Ohio Delaware he led a group of Jerey Lenape first to Bucks County, Pennsylvania in 1771 where it has been said they encamped in temporary cabins near Holicong in Buckingham and later out west in October, 1775. Other articles note that Stille stayed at Stenton and schooled his son at the Union School in Germantown. Still others note that while Stille left with the Lenape but that Hannah Freeman remained in the region.
In May, 1776, Isaac Stille died of small pox while returning to the Ohio country for a diplomatic mission to Congress. A letter of safe passage was not enough to protect him this time.
A pass allowing “Indian Sachems & warriors…who are in friendship with the people of the United States of America,” to return home unmolested, signed by John Hancock, 1776, Raab Collection
Isaac died just two years before the Treaty at Fort Pitt, the first written treaty between the Country and a Native American tribe, the Delawares. The Lenape, respresented by Koquethagechton (White Eyes), Gelemend (John Killbuck, Jr.), and Konieschquanoheel or Hopocan (Captain Pipe), agreed to permit the Continental Army to cross their lands, guide them to British locations, and to “join the troops of the United States.”
In return, the Americans promised to build a fort in Lenape territory for protection and promised trade goods. In addition, the treaty provided for the creation of a 14th state governed by Native Americans with a political representative in the U.S. Congress.
In the end the treaty failed and violence between the Indigenous peoples and the American people resumed in the region through the end of the century. The Delaware Nation along with many other Native Nations, signed the 1795 Treaty of Greenville, which forced the Delaware to give up the majority of their land in present-day Ohio.
Credits:
https://collections.dartmouth.edu/archive/text/occom/ctx/placeography/place0551.ocp.html https://our-land-our-stories.libraries.rutgers.edu/exhibits/show/olos-history/na-nj-hist https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=evans;cc=evans;rgn=main;view=text;idno=N06055.0001.001 https://dia.upenn.edu/en/content/LeechM001/ https://brotherton-weekping.tripod.com/id20.html https://cardinalscholar.bsu.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/8744ffbf-aed7-4a35-b4a1-dfd2a5252adb/content https://preserve.lehigh.edu/_flysystem/fedora/2024-10/3036259.pdf https://web.english.upenn.edu/~cavitch/pdf-library/Merrell_Into_Woods.pdf https://collections.newberry.org/API/Download/v1_0/GetOriginalLimited?Identifier=NL1RL02&SourceAction=API_VIEW_DETAILS_TRX&UsePreviewPdf=False https://www.westjerseyhistory.org/books/smith/smith23.htm