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Beyond Manhattan: A Gazetteer of Delaware Indian History

Robert S. Grumet (2014) 800 words

[Robert S. Grumet (2014)] that the name meant “clear eyes,” in reference to the clear King Beaver” (see in Pennsylvania West above) established his eyes of fish taken at the locale. Whritenour thinks that the present- town sometime before 1763. Heckewelder further thought that day spelling of Muskingum produces a name that sounds very much Nemoschili was an earlier name for the stream he knew as the Tuslike the Munsee word mooshkiingwung, “place of rabbits.” carawas River. In his journal entry for October 13, 1764, Bouquet Muskingum first appeared on Bonnecamps’ map of 1749 (in Mitchener 1876:73) noted that his army crossed what he called as a river noted as Yenangue’Konnan (Albert 1896 2: n.p.). One Nenenchelus Creek as it approached the Muskingum River Indian year later, Gist passed “a town of the Wyendotts” that he identified towns (see above) on his way to demand release of captives taken as Conchake at the forks at the head of the Muskingum River at in the recent wars. Hutchins depicted a stream he identified as Nepresent-day Coshocton (see above) on December 14, 1750 (Dar- menshehelas at the current location of Nimishellin Creek flowing lington 1893:37). Colonists and their American successors almost into what he called Lamanshicolas or Elks Eye Creek (see Muskcontinually battled Delawares and other Indians living in the Musk- ingum above) on his 1778 map. Surveyors laying out tracts in the ingum Valley for control of the area from 1754 until defeat at the area on September 18, 1786, anglicized the name as Nine Shillings Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794 finally forced the Indians to give Creek. up nearly all of present-day Ohio at the Treaty of Greenville (see Newcomers to the newly established State of Ohio subseabove) on August 3, 1795 (Oklahoma State University Library quently founded a community they called Nimishillentown on the 1999-2000). banks of Nimishillen Creek in 1805. The Town of Nimishillen was Today, the 112-mile-long Muskingum River flows from incorporated at the locale in 1809. The nearby Nimisila Reservoir the place where the waters of the Walhonding (see below) and Tus- was completed in 1937 within today’s Portage Lakes State Park. carawas rivers join at Coshocton. The river pursues a southerly Roads bearing the reservoir’s name radiate east and west from its course through Zanesville and past Muskingum River Parkway shores. Linked to the Portage Lakes by an artificial channel, State Park and other places bearing the name to the place where it Nimisila Reservoir water flows both south into Nimishellin Creek J. Williams 1832:55) noted that the Delaware name for the latter stream was Keenhong-she-con Seepung. The present-day Olentangy River that continues to supplant its original name is a nearly 100mile-long tributary of the Scioto River whose uppermost section is still often referred to as Whetstone Creek. The lower course of the river flows south through the Olentangy Valley past Ohio State University to the place where it falls into the Scioto River in the City of Columbus. located within the nine-square-mile reservation established under the terms of the September 29, 1817, Treaty of Miami Rapids (Oklahoma State University Library 1999-2000). The third man called Captain Pipe, whose name in Delaware was Wa-lon-se-qúa kin, “just like a fish that has fine fins on” (Weslager 1978:180), signed the August 3, 1829, Little Sandusky Treaty alongside other sachems agreeing to exchange their Sandusky Reservation for new homes with their nation’s main body in Missouri (Oklahoma State University Library 1999-2000). This third Captain Pipe soon thereafter signed the September 24, 1829, treaty through which the main body on the James River in Missouri accepted a new reservation in Kansas (Oklahoma State Library 1999-2000). PYMATUNING (Ashtabula County). Pymatuning State Park (3,512 acres) is located on the Ohio side of the Pymatuning Reservoir completed in 1934 along 30-mile-long Pymatuning Creek, a branch of the Shenango River (see in Pennsylvania West above) that straddles the state line in Ashtabula County. Scioto River tributary of Paint Creek as Olomon Sepung. for the place that Hutchins (in Hanna 1911 2:195) identified around 1764 as Se-key-unck. Hutchins also noted that the presence of a PIPE (Carroll, Erie, and Wyandot counties). Pipe Creek at San- Delaware Indian community he identified as Will’s Town along the dusky in Erie County and Pipe Run, a Carroll County headwater banks of the modern-day Salt Fork. Whritenour thinks that stream of Sandy River, a tributary of the Tuscarawas River, are Hutchins’ Se-key-unck almost exactly matches the Northern Unami named for the Wolf phratry leader Kogieschquanohel, “causes day word sikeyunk, “salt place.” Today, the more than 20,000-acre Salt light” (Heckewelder 1834:393-394). Another of his names, Lick State Park and its adjoining Wildlife Area are the largest facilHopocan, “pipe,” (see above) became the basis for the name Cap- ities of their type in Ohio. tain Pipe adopted by the sachem and at least