As one of the three clan chiefs
of the Delaware Nation, Pipe had a lot of responsibilities.
One of them was to work
with the other chiefs to keep the people safe. He had to
be a warrior, a negotiator and a good listener to his people.
Captain Pipe fought in the French and Indian War and in Pontiac’s
War where in 1764 Pipe was captured and held prisoner at
Ft. Pitt. Col. Henry Bouquet dictated peace terms to the
Delaware instead of negotiating with them. Pipe found this
very distasteful and it set his opinion of the Shawanock,
or Long Knives, for the rest of his life.
In 1778 General Edward Hand of the
American Colonial forces killed Captain Pipe’s mother,
brother and some of his children.
Even so he was with Captain White Eyes and Killbuck in 1778
when they signed the first-ever treaty with the Continental
Congress and Native people. The Ohio country was to be the
Fourteenth State and only for Native people. The Delaware
people became divided over which side of the American Revolution
they should support. Captain Pipe became the leader of those
who supported the British and moved his people to the Sandusky
River.
In 1782 Captain Pipe and his people
captured Col. Crawford who was held responsible for the
murders of Chief Logan’s
family. Col. Crawford and his men were executed in the same
fashion as Logan’s family. He participated in many battles
and led his people in what he believed was right.
Some believe he died in 1794, but proof exists that he was
at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, but not at the Greenville
Treaty signing. In 1795 a French trader named Jerome built
a cabin at what is present Jeromesville in Ashland County,
Ohio, on the Jerome Fork of the Mohican River. In 1808-09
early white settlers to the area found Delaware people living
at the old Mohican village of Johnstown across the river
from Jerome near which was located the home of Old Captain
Pipe. Many stories of the settlers and the remaining Delaware
talk of Old Captain Pipe living there until 1812. In the
spring of 1812 Old Captain Pipe and his people quietly disappear
and were never again seen near Jeromesville.
Captain Pipe had a son also named Captain Pipe who signed
many treaties and moved with the Delaware people to Kansas.
He had no children.
Resources
Captain Pipe
http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=98
Captain Pipe, 1725-1794 (H for Hopacan)
http://www.alexanderstreet2.com/EENALive/bios/A6949BIO.html
