Tom Quick “The Avenger of the Delaware”

Tom Quick was born in Milford, Pennsylvania in 1734. His father, Thomas Quick, Sr., emigrated from Ulster County in 1733 and was a descendent of well to do ancestors who came from Holland in the late 17th century. Thomas Sr. built a log cabin and settled on valuable lands around Milford. Hunting and fishing were his principal pursuits, together with clearing his lands. Eventually he built a saw mill and a grist mill along a tributary of the Delaware River.

Tom Jr. was his first born and grew up to be tall and broad shouldered with high cheek bones. His youth was spent with the Indians of the Delaware Valley. He became familiar with their language, engaged in many of their sports, hunted and fished with them and became an expert marksman with a rifle. While his brothers and sisters were attending school, Tom was off hunting and trapping with the Indians.

The friendliness with the Indians did not last. While the Indians were reaping the rewards and hospitality shown by the Quick family, there were other influences at work which led the Indians to break off relations with them. This change in feeling did not go unnoticed by the Quick family and while they remained friendly, they did not mingle with the Indians as they had before. Unsuspecting of any treachery, the Quicks went about their business as usual.

On a trip along the Delaware River one winter day in 1756 Tom Jr., his brother and father were unarmed and got ambushed by the Indians. Thomas Sr. was shot by an Indian named Muswink and lay severely wounded. Tom and his brother tried to carry their father across the river. Thomas Sr. told his sons, as he lay dying, to leave him and try to escape to save the family. They ran across the Delaware, and finding they were not pursued, turned cautiously back to see what became of their father. The Indians were war-whooping and rejoicing as they scalped and then beheaded their father. It was at this moment in time that Tom resolved that he would avenge the death of his father. After the Indians left they gathered up the remains of his body and gave him a Christian burial. The day his father was buried Tom took his knife in his right hand and his rifle in his left, looked up to heaven and exclaimed:

By the point of the knife in my right hand and the deadly bullet in my left:

By Heaven and all that there is in it and by earth and all that there is on it:

By the love I bore my father; here on this grave I swear eternal vengeance against the whole Indian race……A voice from my father’s grave cries, Revenge! Eternal Revenge!

He took on the name “The Avenger of the Delaware” and lived up to his new found title. He became a wanderer throughout the valley of the Upper Delaware, remaining hermit-like in remote caves and cabins. One of his favorite hangouts was a cave at Hawk’s Nest, just north of Port Jervis. From this vantage point he could see the entire valley, scope out Indians that may walk along the riverbed, and hone his shooting skills.

Tom had a gun that was 7 feet, 4 inches long and it carried a ball one inch in diameter. He called it “Long Tom.” It was said that one time he shot 3 Indians with one bullet.

Of all the Indians Tom had killed the one that he relished most was when he met up with Muswink, the killer of his father, at Deckers Tavern on the Neversink River. Muswink was drunk and telling Tom that “the war was over.” Tom told him the war was not over for him he drug Muswink out the door and put a bullet through his head.

It is said that Tom died of smallpox in 1796. The Indians, learning of his death, dug up his body and cut it into little pieces and then distributed the remains to various tribes, then gloated over them. The contagious smallpox broke out among them and slew more Indians in his death than in his life.

Some say he killed a hundred Indians. Others say it was only a dozen, but one thing is sure – Tom was looked upon by the settlers as a protector of their homes and the guardian of their wives and children. The settlers were proud to think that one of their own had the courage to face the whole Indian Nation and send many of them to the Great Hunting Ground. Many historians have eulogized his merits, and then on August 28, 1889, his descendants unveiled a monument to his memory in the presence of over 1,000 dignitaries and townspeople in Milford.

On the monument there is an emblem of a wreath, and says that Tom Quick was the first white child born within the limits of the Borough of Milford. It also says “Tom Quick, the Indian Slayer” and “The Avenger of the Delaware.” On the side of the monument is a tomahawk, canoe paddle, scalping knife, wampum, and an inscription which states that, maddened by the death of his father, he never abated his hostility to the Indians till his death 40 years afterwards.

The monument has stood in Milford for more than 100 years. Then, just before Christmas of 1997, someone used a sledgehammer to smash and damage the monument. Borough officials in Milford took the monument down and took it to a secret location. In 1999, two years after the monument was smashed, 200 people with American Indian roots and their supporters descended on Milford for a rally in front of the county courthouse.

One of the Indian supporters said “We are here to ask you to stop thinking of Tom Quick as a folk hero and see him for what he really was: a murderous, hate-filled, racist killer.” The protest squelched any immediate plans Milford Borough Council may have had for restoring the monument.

Anti-monument letters from all over the country poured in and were collected by Borough Council. In 2001 the debate in Milford went national.

Chuck “Gentle Moon” Demund, sub-chief of the Lenape Nation said “This is a monument to a mass murderer and a drunken fool who bragged about killing people.” but failed to recount the countless examples of native savagery vested apon the white settlers.

Milford Borough leaders teamed up with the Pike County Historical Society to restore the monument and to add an interpretive panel. They say that the 9 foot tall obelisk is part of the region’s history and should be put back on display, and rightly so.