Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Tammany

TAMMANY, Indian chief, lived in the 17th century. He was chief of the Delawares, and was variously called Temane, Tamenand, Taminent, Tameny, and Tammany. According to one account, he was the first Indian to welcome William Penn to this country, and was a party to Penn's famous treaty. Another story places his wigwam on the present site of Princeton college, and another says that he lived in the hills of northeastern Pennsylvania, and that he died at an advanced age near a spring in Bucks county, Pa. He was a sagamore, and belonged to the Lenni Lennape confederacy of New York and Pennsylvania, which warred perpetually against the Six Nations and the Manhattan Indians. The tradition is that the evil spirit sought to gain a share in the administration of his kingdom, but Tammany refused to hold intercourse with him. The enemy then resorted to strategy, and attempted to enter his country, but was foiled by the chief, and at length determined to destroy him. A duel was waged for many moons, during which forests were trampled under foot, which have since remained prairie lands. Finally Tammany tripped his adversary, threw him to the ground, and would have scalped him, but the evil spirit extricated himself and escaped to Manhattan, where he was welcomed by the natives, and afterward made his home with them. Tammany appears to have been a brave and influential chieftain, and his nation reverenced his memory by bestowing his name upon those that deserved that honor. He is now chiefly known as the patron of a Democratic political organization in New York city called the Tammany society.