Weequehela and his Descendants

A document which I consider to be "good" genealogy is The Descendants of Weequehela by Caroline Andler, the tribal genealogist of the Brothertown Indians of Wisconsin. Weequehela's descendants belong to the interconnected Brotherton, Stockbridge, and Brothertown Indian tribes. (Intermarriage between the Stockbridge, Brotherton, and Brothertown Indians occurred when they lived as neighbors in New York State and Calumet County, Wisconsin.)

It seems that it was Rich Walling who put something up about Weequehela, a very prosperous New Jersey Delaware Indian, on the net a few years ago. Use this link to read about Weequehela's crime and apparently unlawful execution.

Weequehela and his wife, Sarah Store, had a daughter who was also named Sarah Store. The younger Sarah Store was (according to a statement her son made to Rev. Cutting Marsh) brought to the Christian faith by the mission work of David Brainerd. Use this link to read about the Brainerd brothers.

The younger Sarah Store married the Brotherton interpreter and schoolmaster, Stephen Calvin (the surname of Calvin was common among Presbyterians/Congregationalists/Puritans at that time). Stephen and Sarah had at least two children, Hezekiah, and Bartholomew.



Bartholomew S. Calvin's Indian name was Shawuskhkung, which is interpreted either as "Wilted Grass," or "Place of the Wilted Grass."


I will have more about Bartholomew Calvin and his descendants in future posts. But for now, I'll leave you with part of the statement he made to the New Jersey legislature. As a relatively old man living in Stockbridge, Wisconsin, Bartholomew Calvin went back to New Jersey to collect $2000 that the state owed the remnant of his people for their treaty rights, and made a speech to their lawmakers with this rather often-quoted line:

"Not a drop of our blood have you spilled in battle; not an acre of ground have you taken but by our consent. These facts speak for themselves and need no comment. They place the character of New Jersey in bold relief and bright example to those states within whose territorial limits our brethren still remain. Naught save benisons can fall upon her from the lips of a Lenni-Lenape."