The Huts of Grace (Part 5)

Recalling the family of Old Captain Harris, which had set out from Trenton around 1730, we remember that Captain John settled at Welagameka (near Nazareth, where the Moravians built a missionary outpost12 years later), while his father Old Captain Harris and brothers George Rex and Teedyuskung continued North of the Blue Mountains. George Rex (later Brother Augustus) founded the settlement at Meniolágoméka, while Old Captain Harris settled nearby in the Lehigh Gap, near Palmerton, and called his home Poakopohkunk (now Pocopoco).

It's useful to remember that even though these Delaware settlements were semi-permamanent, the Indians retained their very mobile heritage -- going on extended hunts and periodically living among other clans. This was an important aspect of their cultural interaction and communication. There were Delaware clans scattered all around eastern Pennsylvania, including one at Shamokin (which will be important later). So it is hard to know for certain whether Teedyuskung was at Meniolágoméka when Count von Zinzendorf made his initial visit there. It is possible that he was off on one of his frequent forays.

The daily life of the Delawares would have seemed incredibly simplistic to the Europeans.

They lived in ramshackle, one-room bark huts that were scattered on the banks of the river. Each hut (or wigwam) had a dome-shaped roof with a hole in it to allow smoke to escape. Their arrows were made of reeds topped with a flint, sharpened stick or animal bone. It is said that the Aquashicola creek (above) was so rich with fish that they could easily be scooped out with a basket.

Even before his baptism George Rex (Brother Augustus) had been entreating the Moravians to send a missionary to Meniolágoméka. In fact, already in 1747 the Moravians had set up a mission station and hospital near his father's camp along the Lehigh River at modern-day Lehighton. Here they had taken in dozens of Delaware Indians from New England who were fleeing encroaching Connecticut settlers. They were also escaping a law passed by the New York State legislature that forbade whites from living among the Indians. So once again these exiles sought sanctuary in Penn's colony, and the Moravians named their fort on the banks of the Lehigh River, Gnadenhütten -- Huts of Grace -- the name that the hospital in Lehighton still bears 260 years later.

The settlement at Gnadenhütten had grown to over 500 Indians, but each family had their

own parcel of land to farm, and it is said that each hunt brought in "15-20 deer or bear," and that the surrounding forests were full of "wild honey, chestnuts and bilberries." Eventually they also erected a sawmill for cutting timber and floating it down the Lehigh river to Bethlehem. The 12 Moravian missionaries would gather everyone together twice a day for worship services and translated the Scriptures into the local Indian languages. Though it may sound pastoral, life was still difficult and disease was widespread. And these quiet years at Gnadenhütten would turn out to be only a short reprieve from a political storm that was gathering in the surrounding colonies and far away in Europe.

Exploration (Part 4)

The Moravians wasted little time in spreading their influence throughout eastern Pennsylvania. In 1742 Count von Zinzendorf and seven companions set out on a tour of the hills and woodlands north and west of Nazareth. The first night they were received cordially by Indians near Captain John's settlement at Welagameka. Next day they continued north, and reached the south side of the Blue Mountains, near present-day Bangor. Here, again, they lodged with a Delaware Indian who had a hut on the site.

On July 27, 1742, Count von Zinzendorf and his fellowship crossed the Blue Mountain into Cherry Valley, and on July 28 they finally emerged from the endless forests at Meniolágoméka -- "The Fat Land Among the Barren" -- present-day Kunkletown. Here they met George Rex and his family. Von Zinzendorf's 16-year-old daughter, Benigna, upon meeting the Indian children at the settlement, decided that the girls should have the opportunity to go to school just like white boys. The same year she founded Moravian Seminary in Germantown, PA. Shortly thereafter it was moved to Bell House in Bethlehem, and Lady
Benigna invited all the Indian girls to come. Moravian Seminary was the first boarding school for girls in the New World, and over time it gained a superb reputation -- so much so that 50 years later, while he was President, George Washington personally petitioned for admission of his great-nieces. Eventually the school's charter was expanded, and it became Moravian College and Moravian Academy, both of which remain preeminent educational institutions to this day.

While preparing to leave Meniolágoméka and pass once again over the 1550 ft. Blue Mountain, Count von Zinzendorf had a premonition. So while the rest of the group returned over the mountain and followed the Wyoming Trail back to the Lehigh Valley, Count von
Zinzendorf and an Indian guide headed west instead toward the homestead of the famous woodsman and explorer Conrad Weiser, who was in charge of the Pennsylvania government's dealings with the Indians. It took them four days to make it all the way to Weiser's homestead near Reading, PA. It was lucky timing, too, because Weiser had just returned from a Treaty Conference in Philadelphia, and was accompanied by all the chiefs of the 6 Nations, including the powerful Iroquois! With Weiser's assistance, von Zinzendorf reached an agreement with the tribes whereby Moravian missionaries were guaranteed safe passage through Indian territory. Now the missionary work of the Moravians could begin in earnest!


It must have made a lasting impression on the poor Delaware Indians, who had for decades been driven hither and thither, that these white men had come who did not ask for land, but only for goodwill. At least this must have been true for Sachem George Rex (the Brother-in-law of Teedyuscung and Captain of Meniolágoméka) and the others from the Kunkletown settlement, who over the next few years repeatedly traveled to Bethlehem to hear the Moravian choirs, learn about Christianity, and observe the numerous building projects. Seven years later, on April 25, 1749, while visiting Bethlehem, George Rex asked for and was granted baptism by the Moravians, and received the Christian name "Brother Augustus." Even Rex's grandfather, at the age of 100, made the journey across the Blue Mountain to Bethlehem and was baptized as "Noah." This aged Sachem died a few weeks after returning home to Meniolágoméka, and was buried in the little Indian cemetery, the ancient walls of which remain standing to this day.

The Barony of the Rose (Part 3)

Before his death William Penn had deeded a certain 5,000 acre tract of land to his daughter, Lady Letitia Penn-Aubrey. The property was titled "The Barony of the Rose." It was uninhabited by Europeans, but it did happen to be home to Captain John and his clan. Lady Letitia apparently

intended to to erect a pseudo-aristocratic government on the parcel, complete with all of its peculiar tradition and ceremony. Her father specifically granted her, "the privilege of holding 'Court Baron'... for the conservation of the peace," and in 1731 her brothers relinquished any claim to the property in return for one red rose from their sister to be paid yearly on July 24.

It would have been difficult for Lady Letitia to hold court in Nazareth, though, because she lived in England. Instead, it was arranged that the famous itinerant Methodist preacher George Whitfield (who had become acquainted with the Moravians) would use the property to erect a school for black slaves who had escaped to the North. A group of Moravians whom Whitfield had encountered in Georgia, led by Peter Böhler, were commissioned to build the school on the property, but before it could be finished, a theological dispute arose between them and the Methodist brethren, and Whitfield kicked the Moravians out of the Barony, back to Bethlehem.

Shortly after the dispute, however, the Moravians arranged to purchase the tract from

Whitfield outright, whereupon the rights and privileges of Baroness of the Rose were transferred to Countess Erdmuth Dorothea von Zinzendorf und Pottendorf, the wife of the Moravians' magnanimous benefactor. Like Lady Letitia, however, the Countess lived in Europe, but she was represented in the Barony by her daughter, Benigna.

The Moravians completed the schoolhouse (today named Whitfield House) and renamed the property the Barony of Nazareth (a fitting counterpart to the nearby settlement at Bethlehem). As an artifact

of the Barony of the Rose, the local inn continued to be called Der Gasthof zur Rose, and today Rose Inn Ave. still runs near the center of town.

Instead of using the property as a haven for escaped slaves, however, the Moravians intended to erect an outpost for their Indian missions. It is ironic, though, that the Moravians began their missionary endeavor by acquiring land that fell within the controversial Walking Purchase. In fact, by purchasing the Barony, they were actually dispossessing Captain John and his clan. Captain John protested loudly to the Pennsylvania government and to the tribes of the other Five Nations. He received no support from either source (the other tribes were still angry that during the Walking Purchase affair about five years earlier, the Delawares had not consulted with them. They were now prepared to allow the Delawares to "lie in their bed as they had made it.")

This opened up the door for the Moravians' first preludes to the Delaware tribes: they had come to America to convert the Indians -- not to displace them. In a fashion reminiscent of William Penn's original treaty back in 1682, Count von Zinzendorf negotiated to purchase the property a second time -- this time from Captain John. The missionary John Heckewelder recorded that Zinzendorf, "paid them out of his private purse, the whole of the demand which they made in the height of their ill-temper, and moreover gave them permission to abide on the land, at their village, where they had a fine large peach orchard, as long as they should think proper."

Captain John does not appear to have taken the Moravians up on their offer to allow him to live indefinitely on the land at Nazareth without paying rent. But others from his tribe did, and gradually they began to participate actively in life at the Moravian missions. Zinzendorf's magnanimity and peaceful nature may have reminded them of William Penn's generosity and fairness a generation earlier. They were also sorely in need of the Moravians' help, partly because of especially hard winters during those years and partly (tragically) because of the diseases (especially smallpox) that were ravaging their population as a result of their interaction with Europeans.

New Beginnings (Part 2)

It was in the early 1730's that the clan of Delaware Indians that had departed from Trenton reached modern-day Nazareth, near the Bushkill Creek. Here the party of Delaware Indians split. The family of Captain John settled at Welagameka (near what is today the intersection of S. Whitfield and E. Belvidere Streets), while his father, Captain Harris, and George Rex were determined to put more space between them and the white settlers. They headed further north, toward a natural divide in the southern edge of the Appalachians where the town of Wind Gap nestles today. On the north side of the ridge they continued about eight miles west until they came to a place they named Meniolágoméka, meaning "the fat land among the barrens." George Rex and the rest of his party made a permanent settlement here in the shadow of the Kittatinny Ridge on the banks of the Aquashicola creek. Decades later it would eventually become known as Gunkeltown (today Kunkletown).

The founding of Meniolágoméka coincided with a bold religious fervor that was sweeping both old Europe and the new Colonies, which today we call the Great Awakening. But for decades prior Pietist and Anabaptist refugees from the war-ravaged German principalities had already been pouring into Pennsylvania at the invitation of its founder, seeking his promise of justice, nonviolence and religious tolerance. One of these groups, the Moravians (named for the region Mähren) began the first widespread Protestant missionary movement, with the goal of evangelizing, educating, and bringing medicine to native Americans.

On Christmas Eve 1741, the leader of the Moravians, Count Nikolaus von Zinzendorf established their base in the New World with a new town on the bluffs overlooking the Lehigh River at its confluence with Monocacy Creek -- on the doorstep of the Delaware settlements. They named their outpost Bethlehem.

Teedyuskung (Part 1)

I've been reading about the history of our region of Eastern Pennsylvania. It has been shaped by a number of different forces, so it is necessary to piece the story together from multiple perspectives. I've been trying to form them into a coherent whole. It'll take a while, but eventually it might work. Here's the first installment:

The story begins near Trenton, New Jersey in the early 1700's. William Penn died in 1718, and the peace that "the Great Good Man" had famously negotiated with the Six Nations of Indians was in jeopardy. Influxes of white immigrants were threatening established Indian camps near the burgeoning port cities along the Delaware river. At the same time, fashions were changing in England, and beaverskin hats were no longer in vogue. So the Indians began to lose their market for a valuable commodity that they had been trading with the Europeans.

William Penn's sons shared neither their father's Quaker faith, nor his sense of justice toward the native Americans, and they allowed progressively more settlement on lands that Penn had promised to the Tribes, including the infamous "Walking Purchase." Many respected English-speaking Delaware Indians were worried about the growing white population and

decided to abandon the Trenton area. One clan moved north to the juncture of the Lehigh and Delaware rivers, to a place called "The Forks" (now Easton, Pennsylvania). (*The Native word for the Lehigh River was Lechau-weki, meaning "the fork in the road." The Germans shortened this to Lecha, and later the English made it the Lehigh River.) Other Delaware Indian clans followed the Schuylkill and Brandywine Rivers to establish different settlements. We'll be coming back to them later.

Here it is necessary to understand a little about the Delaware Indians in relation to the other Five Tribes that inhabited Pennsylvania when William Penn arrived in 1682. Of course the tribes that we today call the Delawares would have called themselves by other names, such as the Lenopi or Lenapi. Today we lump them together and name them for the river whose cool, wooded valleys they inhabited. (The Delaware River itself, though, is named for British Lord De La Warr -- who was obviously not a native American.)

The Delaware tribes were the most peaceful of the Indian nations in the region. Moreover, they openly accepted subjugation to the more powerful nations like the Iroquois. There are conflicting explanations for the Delawares' tributary role. The other tribes often boasted that they had vanquished the Delawares in battle, and had "made them women." Other scholars argued that the Delawares had actually been honored with the role of Tribal Peacemakers, but that over time this "honor" was interpreted as shameful weakness. These peaceful people traded extensively with the white settlers in the Trenton area, mostly in furs, woven baskets and brooms. Over time they fell into the typical cycle that accompanies economically interdependent cultures: there was growing concern that they were becoming too dependent on the white man, and that they were losing their traditional customs and values.

A well-justified apprehension of the Europeans, combined with over-hunting the deer, rabbit and beaver populations encouraged the Delawares' withdraw to the woodlands north and west of Trenton and Philadelphia. The leaders or elders of the Delaware clans were known as Sachem. It's problematic to call these leaders "chiefs," because prior to European influence the Indians didn't typically have a single authority, and there was considerable fluidity among the tribes. But by now the Delaware Indians had become very connected to the Europeans, and we know the party that moved north to "The Forks" by their English names. The father Sachem was "Old Captain Harris," and he had six sons, Captain John, Young Captain Harris, Tom, Joe, Sam Evans, and Honest John. Honest John's Indian name was Teedyuskung - "He who makes the Earth tremble."

In the story that follows we'll read about heroism and charity, as well as vengeance and hatred. There are obvious heros and undeniable villains. But there is one character who will continually reappear, and who is as mysterious and tragic today as he was while he lived. That character is Teedyuskung.