In days gone by, the singular character and eccentric acts of the noted Indian Will formed the theme of many a fireside story among our ancestors, many of which are still remembered by older citizens. Some of the traditionary incidents given below differ in some particulars, but we give them as related to us many years ago by old residents. Indian Will was evidently quite a traveler, and well known from Barnegat almost to the Highlands. At Forked River, it is said he often visited Samuel Chamberlain on the neck of land between the north and middle branches, and was generally followed by a pack of lean, hungry dogs which he kept to defend himself from his Indian enemies. The following tradition was published in 1842, by Howe, in Historical Collections of New Jersey:

"About the year 1670, the Indians sold out the section of country near Eatontown to Lewis Morris for a barrel of cider, and emigrated to Crosswicks and Cranbury. One of them, called Indian Will, remained, and dwelt in a wigwam between Tinton Falls and Swimming River. His tribe were in consequence exasperated, and at various times sent messengers to kill him in single combat; but, being a brave, athletic man, he always came off conqueror. One day while partaking of a breakfast of suppawn and milk with a silver spoon at Mr. Eaton's, he casually remarked that he knew where there were plenty of such. They promised that if he would bring them, they would give him a red coat and cocked hat. In a short time he was arrayed in that dress, and it is said the Eatons suddenly became wealthy. About 80 years since, in pulling down an old mansion in Shrewsbury, in which a maiden member of this family in her lifetime had resided, a quantity of cob dollars, supposed by the superstitious to have been Kidd's money, was found concealed in the cellar wall. This coin was generally of a square or oblong shape, the corners of which wore out the pockets."

A somewhat similar, or perhaps a variation of the same tradition, we have frequently heard from old residents of Ocean county, as follows:

"Indian Will often visited the family of Derrick Longstreet at Manasquan, and one time showed them some silver money which excited their surprise. They wished to know where he got it and wanted Will to let them have it. Will refused to part with it, but told them he had found it in a trunk along the beach, and there was plenty of yellow money beside; but as the yellow money was not as pretty as the white, he did not want it, and Longstreet might have it. So Longstreet went with him, and found the money in a trunk, covered over with a tarpaulin and buried in the sand. Will kept the white money, and Longstreet the yellow (gold), and this satisfactory division made the Longstreets wealthy.

It is probable that Will found money along the beach; but whether it had been buried by pirates, or was from some shipwrecked vessel, is another question. However, the connection of Kidd's name with the money would indicate that Will lived long after the year named in the first quoted tradition (1670). Kidd did not sail on his piratical cruises until 1696, and, from the traditionary information the writer has been enabled to obtain, Will must have lived many years subsequent. The late John Tilton, a prominent, much-respected citizen of Barnegat, in early years lived at Squan, and he was quite confident that aged citizens who related to him stories of Will, knew him personally. They described him as stout, broad-shouldered, with prominent Indian features, and rings in his ears, and a good-sized one in his nose.

The following are some of the stories related of him:

Among other things which Will had done to excite the ill-will of other Indians, he was charged with having killed his wife. Her brother, named Jacob, determined on revenge. He pursued him, and, finding him unarmed undertook to march him off captive. As they were going along, Will espied a pine knot on the ground, managed to pick it up, and suddenly dealth Jacob a fatal blow. As he dropped to the ground, Will tauntingly exclaimed, "Jacob, look up at the sun- you'll never see it again!" Most of the old residents who related traditions of Will, spoke of his finding money at one time on the dead body of an Indian he had killed; but whether it was Jacob's or some other, was not mentioned.

At one time to make sure of killing Will, four or five Indians started in pursuit of him, and they succeeded in surprising him so suddenly that he had no chance for defence or flight. His captors told him they were about to kill him, and he must at once prepare to die. He heard his doom with Indian stoicism, and he had only one favor to ask before he was killed and that was to be allowed to take a drink out of his jug of liquor which had just been filled. So small a favor the captors could not refuse. As Will's jug was full, it was only common politeness to ask them to drink also. Now, if his captors had any weakness it was for rum, so they gratefully accepted his invitation. The drink rendered them talkative, and they commenced reasoning with him upon the enormity of his offences. The condemned man admitted the justness of their reproaches and begged to be allowed to take another drink to drown the stings of conscience; the captors consented to join him again- indeed it would have been cruel to refuse to drink with a man so soon to die. This gone through with, they persuaded Will to make a full confession of his misdeeds, and their magnitude so aroused the indignation of his captors that they had to take another drink to enable them to do their duty becomingly; in fact they took divers drinks, so overcome were they by his harrowing tale, and then they were so completely unmanned that they had to try to recuperate by sleep. Then crafty Will, who had really drank but little, softly arose, found his hatchet, and soon dispatched his would-be captors.

It was a rule with Will not to waste any ammunition, and therefore he was bound to eat whatever game he killed, but a buzzard which he once shot, sorely tried him, and it took two or three days' starving before he could stomach it. One time when he was alone on the beach he was seized with a fit of sickness and thought he was about to die, and not wishing his body to lie exposed, he succeeded in digging a shallow grave in the sand in which he lay for a while, but the sickness passed off and he crept out and went on his way rejoicing. In the latter part of his life he would never kill a willet, as he said a willet once saved his life. He said he was in a canoe one dark stormy night crossing the bay, and somewhat the worse for liquor, and unconsciously about to drift out of the Inlet into the ocean, when a willet screamed and the peculiar cry of this bird seemed to him to say "This way, Will! this way. Will!" and that way Will went, and reached the beach just in time to save himself from certain death in the breakers. When after wild fowl he would sometimes talk to them in a low tone: "Come this way, my nice bird, Will won't hurt you!" If he succeeded in killing one he would say: "You fool, you believed me, eh? Ah, Will been so much with white men he learned to lie like a white man!"

Near the mouth of Squan river is a deep place known as "Will's Hole." There are two versions of the origin of the name, but both connecting Indian Will's name with it. Esquire Benjamin Pearce, an aged, intelligent gentleman, residing in the vicinity, informed the writer that he understood it was so called because Will himself was drowned in it, The other version, related by the late well remembered Thomas Cook, of Point Pleasant, is as follows:

Indian Will lived in a cabin in the woods near Cook's place; one day he brought home a muskrat which he ordered his wife to cook for dinner; she obeyed, but when it was placed upon the table she refused to partake of it. "Very well," said he, "if you are too good to eat muskrat you are too good to live with me." And thereupon he took her down to the place or hole in the river spoken of, and drowned her. Mr. Cook gave another tradition as follows: Indian Will had three brothers-in-law, two of whom resided on Long Island, and when, in course of time, word reached them that their sister had been drowned, they crossed over to Jersey to avenge her death. When they reached Will's cabin, he was inside eating clam soup. Knowing their errand, he invited them to dinner, telling them he would fight it out with them afterward. They sat down to eat, but before concluding their dinner Will pretended he heard some one coming, and hurried to the door, outside of which the visitors had left their guns, one of which Will caught up and fired and killed one Indian and then shot the other as he rushed to close in. In those days the Indians held yearly councils about where Burrsville now is. At one of these councils Will met the third brother-in-law, and when it was over they started home together carrying a jug of whiskey between them. On the way, inflamed with liquor, this Indian told Will he meant to kill him for drowning his sister. They closed in a deadly fight, and Will killed his antagonist with a pine knot.

Mr. Cook said, Indian Will finally died in his cabin above mentioned. From the traditions related to us many years ago by Eli and John Collins and John Tilton of Barnegat, Reuben Williams of Forked River, and others, and from Thomas Cook's statements, it is evident Indian Will must have lived until about a century ago, and if he protested against any sale of land, it must have been against the titles ceded about 1758. At the treaties then, an Indian called Captain John, claimed the lands from Metedeconk to Toms River, but other Indians said they were also concerned.