Gelelemend

Gelelemend (c.1737 of 1741–1811) (Lenape), also known as Killbuck or John Killbuck Jr., was an important Delaware (Lenape) principle Chief during the American Revolutionary War. With White Eyes and Captain Pipe (war captain of the Wolf clan), Gelelemend signed the Delaware Treaty with the United States in 1778. Only after the death of White Eyes later that year, who was murdered on November 5, 1778, by an American militia officer, did Gelelemend become principal chief of the Lenape. and helped guide Colonel Daniel Brodhead in an expedition to destroy the Delaware capital of Coshocton in Ohio, where he had lived and served as chief. The raid found only 15 young warriors, who were bound and killed. With a few of his followers, Gelelemend returned with the Americans to Fort Pitt. The raid on Coshocton was condemned; Washington court-martialed Broadhead and removed him from command. He was the most prominent convert in the Lenape community. Gelelemend died in Goshen Township, Tuscarawas County, Ohio in 1811.

Legacy The village of Killbuck, Ohio, in Holmes County, is named for Gelelemend. By contrast, the town of Kill Buck, New York—spelled as two words—does not derive its name from him. Gelelemend’s name is also commemorated in Killbuck Island, a former island in the Allegheny River at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

To honor William Henry, many of Gelelemend’s descendants were given Henry as a middle name. Among them was his great-grandson, John Henry Kilbuck, a Moravian missionary in Alaska, who named his daughter Katherine Henry Kilbuck in tribute to the family’s heritage.