Tom Quick, profile

In 1889, Tom Quick's remains — those that could be recovered — were exhumed and brought to Milford, the town his father had founded, where they were placed, with great pomp and ceremony, in a jar, which in term was placed beneath an eight-foot-tall stone obelisk, a monument to Quick and his exploits. On it, among others, were the words "Avenger of the Delaware." His victims were dismissed as "savages."

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Milford Town Sign

One hundred and eight years later, the monument was vandalized, attacked with a sledgehammer and reduced to rubble. Longtime residents of Milford demanded that the monument be restored. But this time, there was opposition. The town fathers, perhaps echoing that same discomfort felt by the more cultured settlers 200 years earlier after the murder of Muskwink, decided to get an Indian point of view. But, of course, there were no formally recognized tribes, not in the entire state of Pennsylvania. The Lenape were long gone.

So it fell to a local man, a Cree Indian, who had emigrated from Canada sometime earlier to fill the traditional role of the Lenape, as peacemaker and negotiator. He proposed that the monument be replaced — it would be wrong, he argued, to try to sweep history under the rug - but that this time, that the marker on it should also reflect the pain inflicted on the local Lenape.

That decision met with approval at first, but bit by bit, there was opposition — including a major campaign by other Native Americans who had moved to the area. In 2001, Paul Stookey — aka Paul from the famous 1960s folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary — penned a song critical of Milford's plans to acknowledge Quick. In the end, the opponents succeeded in stalling the rededication of the Tom Quick memorial.

Perhaps someday, it will be replaced. But for the moment, the obelisk, a monument to a man, a perhaps murderous man who often took refuge in the silence of his fellow settlers, is sitting in a storeroom somewhere.

Fearing possible vandalism, Milford officials will not reveal its location.

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