Tom Quick, The Indian Slayer
Thomas Quick emigrated from Ulster county about the year 1733, and was the descendant of respectable and affluent ancestors, who came over from Holland previous to 1689. He located some valuable lands at Milford, Pennsylvania, where he built a log cabin, and settled down with none but Indians for neighbors. He depended largely on hunting and fishing for his subsistence, and in this respect his habits differed little from those of the wild Indians about him.
It was not long before other settlers were attracted into that locality. Among the few white maidens that had ventured so far into the wilderness was a comely lass whom Thomas Quick prevailed on to share his fortunes in life's thorny pathway. Though the bride's trousseau may not have come from Paris, though guests in silks and rich brocades may not have graced the occasion, we question whether loving hearts did not beat as fondly as though surrounded by the demands and restraints of fashionable life; and whether the plain and homely fare of cornbread and venison was not as thoroughly relished as the most elaborate wedding-feast of modern days. Here, in due time, several children were born to them, among the number Thomas Quick, the subject of this chapter. The Quicks had wisely chosen the location of their home. The family prospered, became the owners of milk, and the possessors of much valuable real estate.
Notwithstanding that the wealth and social position of the Quicks would assure Tom a welcome to the best society of those border settlements, his tastes led him in another direction-a wild life in the forest and the companionship of the savages by whom he was surrounded proving much more to his liking.
At this time the various tribes of natives held undisputed sway along the banks of the Delaware and its tributaries, except the settlement at Peenpack, on the Neversink; and they frequented the house of Quick, who had early won their confidence, and who, from the first, had treated them with generous hospitality. They took quite a fancy to young “Tom,” and “made him presents of plumes of feathers and other articles.” He frequently participated with the young Indians in their sports, became their companion in their hunting expeditions, and learned to speak the Delaware tongue with as much fluency as the Indians themselves. So much did he incline to a hunter's life that he could rarely be induced to follow any other vocation. His associations developed in him all those characteristics of the natives which inclined them to a life of wild abandonment, and he grew to be totally unlike his brothers and sisters; while he ranged the woods, they attended a Dutch school that had been established to meet the demands of the neighborhood. During this period, however, he was familiarizing himself with the country at the headwaters of the Delaware and its tributaries; most of these streams he had traced to their sources, and thus acquired a knowledge that proved of essential service to him in after years.
As has been before stated, the Indians were on very intimate terms with the Quicks, “many of them almost living in the family.” But these friendly relations were not of an enduring character. While the Quicks studiously avoided giving any offense to their savage neighbors, and invariably treated them with open-hearted hospitality, there were other influences at work which induced the Indians to forget the kind offices of their benefactors; and while the latter felt their past favors merited some consideration, the natives were plotting for the total extinction of the white settlement.
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