Author Alan Fitzpatrick to share story of Lenape leader Bemino at Dover Library

Author and historian Alan Fitzpatrick will speak about his 2024 nonfiction history book “Vengeance is Mine: The Untold Story of Bemino, Known as Killbuck” at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 17, at the Dover Public Library, 525 N. Walnut St.

The book tells the story of Bemino, a Lenape war captain and medicine man who fought during the conflict between Native Americans and colonists in the late 1700s. Set in the South Potomac Valley, now part of West Virginia, the story highlights Bemino’s command of English, which gave him an advantage over his colonial adversaries during the French and Indian War. His ability to communicate and strategize allowed him to plan ruses and ambushes that influenced the war’s outcome. After the war, Bemino returned to his father, Netawattwees, in what is now Newcomerstown. A book signing will follow the program.

Born and raised in Canada, Fitzpatrick has lived in West Virginia since 1973. A Kent State University graduate, he worked at the West Virginia Penitentiary in Moundsville before moving to the Wheeling area, where he ran a retail carpet business for 33 years. Fascinated by early frontier history of the Upper Ohio Valley, Fitzpatrick helped found “Fort Henry Days” in 1997, a living-history reenactment of the 1782 final battle of the American Revolution held each Labor Day weekend at Oglebay Park in Wheeling.

His other nonfiction works include “Wilderness War on the Ohio,” “In Their Own Words,” “The Place of the Skull,” “The White Indians,” “Captives and Kin in the Ohio Country,” “The Untold Story of Isaac Zane,” “Patriot Soldier, Loyalist Spy” and “Captured by the Mingo – Two Faces.”

To register, visit www.doverlibrary.org/events or call 330-343-6123.