15 Facts About Captain Pipe

Captain Pipe succeeded his maternal uncle Custaloga as chief by 1773.

Captain Pipe made treaties with the Continental Congress to try to protect Lenape land.

Captain Pipe was probably born about 1725 near the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania.

Captain Pipe likely spent his early years either at Custaloga's Town, along French Creek in Mercer County.

In 1778 Captain Pipe was with White Eyes and Killbuck, contemporary Lenape leaders of the Turkey Clan, when they signed the first treaty between the Continental Congress and Native peoples.

Captain Pipe demanded their Ohio Country warriors assist the Americans in capturing Fort Detroit, and threatened them with extermination if they refused.

Captain Pipe became the leader of Lenape who supported the British and moved his people to the Tymochtee Creek near the Sandusky River.

Captain Pipe spent the remainder of the war resisting American expansion into the Ohio Country.

In 1782, Captain Pipe helped defeat the Crawford Expedition, headed by William Crawford.

Captain Pipe knew he would likely be killed if he intervened in the ritual, but he was strongly criticized by American survivors for letting Crawford be tortured.

Captain Pipe continued to resist white settlement of the Ohio Country.

Captain Pipe was believed to have last visited around 1800.

The home of Old Captain Pipe was located nearby, as reported in stories of the settlers and the Lenape, who said he lived there until 1812.

Chief Captain Pipe was said to have died around 1818 near Orestes and is supposedly buried there.

Captain Pipe had a son, known as Captain Pipe, who signed many treaties and moved with the Lenape to Kansas.