Within the Delaware hierarchy, Bemino’s phratry is unclear, but he was a member of either the Turtle or the Turkey phratry. He may have been born or raised in what is now eastern Ohio where his father, a Delaware sub-chief named Netawatwees, had been forced to remove from the Delaware River Valley by white pressure. In any case, by the 1740s and '50s Bemino was well acquainted with all the white settler families in the valley of the South Branch Potomac River in what is now the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. This river and region were known at that time to Indians and whites alike by a Native American name — Wappocomo. Such was the rapport between Bemino and the newly established whites that, shortly before the outbreak of the French and Indian War, one of them—a Mr Peter Casey—hired Bemino to chase down and retrieve a "runaway negro". In trying to collect his payment, however, he quarreled with Casey, who knocked him to the ground with a cane. At times, Bemino would live among some of the English families, a situation that allowed him to familiarize himself with their habits and assess their resources—knowledge that later proved invaluable when he allied himself with the French as a leader of marauding warrior bands in the region.
After the outbreak of hostilities at the Battle of Jumonville Glen in Pennsylvania, Bemino was among those Indian leaders siding with the French against the English. Bemino is said to have led the attack in an ambush of white settlers near Fort Pleasant, in what is now Hardy County, West Virginia, in March or April 1756. A one- or two-hour firefight left seven whites dead as against three Indians. At around the same time, Bemino and a small band apprehended Mr. Vincent Williams, a settler on Patterson's Creek, some 9 miles across Patterson Creek Mountain from Fort Pleasant. After besieging him in his home, the Indians managed to kill him and quarter his body, hanging the four parts at the four corners of the log cabin, and impaling his head upon a fence stake at the front door. The house, with many additions, still stands near Williamsport, in now Grant Co. W. Va, as well as the old Williams family graveyard nearby. An engagement known as the Battle of Great Cacapon took place on April 18, 1756. A number of years after this incident, Bemino described how he and a band of Indians killed two men near Fort Edwards, not far from the Cacapon River in what is now Hampshire County, West Virginia. Deliberately leaving a trail of corn meal, they lay in wait for an ambush along a high stream bank. Captain John Mercer led a band of militia in pursuit. When they passed the concealed Indians, the trap was sprung, and the Indians opened a withering crossfire, killing Mercer and 16 of his men. Survivors were soon chased down and killed, with Bemino claiming that only six men escaped. In 1756 or 1757, Bemino approached Fort Cumberland, just across the Potomac River in Maryland, with a large warrior force. Agreeing to a parlay, the garrison commander, a Major Livingston, admitted the leaders inside the gates, but detained them there and, assuming that the encounter was a ruse, humiliated them before expelling them from the fort. Bemino and his Delaware and Shawnee warriors attacked the British settler stockades at Fort Upper Tract and Fort Seybert on 27 and 28 April 1758, respectively. Fort Seybert was then occupied by about 30 people, apparently only three of which were adult males. After the defenders surrendered, the Indians spared only eleven white lives. According to the son of one of the survivors:
They bound ten, whom they conveyed without the fort, and then proceeded to massacre the others in the following manner: They seated them in a row upon a log, with an Indian standing behind each; and at a given signal, each Indian sunk his tomahawk into the head of his victim: an additional blow or two dispatched them.
Later years
In later years, the sons of the aforementioned Peter Casey and Vincent Williams Jr. visited the elderly Bemino in the Ohio Country. By this time he was quite feeble and completely blind. Upon hearing the name of Col. Vincent Williams, his only response was "Your father was a brave warrior". Upon hearing that the other visitor, Benjamin Casey, was Peter Casey's son, he responded: "Your father owes me eight shillings; will you pay it?" During this visit, Bemino related many of the details of his exploits which would otherwise have been lost to history for lack of surviving eyewitnesses.
Legacy
Despite the bitter animosity between Bemino and the white settlers and officials, two places in Ohio continue to bear his name: the town of Killbuck and the stream known as Killbuck Creek.
