Having previously signified to the Moravian Brethren at Bethlehem his desire to spend the winter at Bethlehem, permission for him and his family to do so was reluctantly granted. Thereupon, upon his return from New Jersey, a lodge was built for him near “The Crown” inn. There he held court and gave audience to the wild embassies that would come from the Indian country.
In addition to Tedyuskung and his family nearly one hundred Indians spent the winter of 1757–58 in the neighborhood of “The Crown.” Reichel says: “Government was imposing an additional burden upon the Brethren when it committed this lawless crowd to their keeping * * * We are at a loss how to act. Furthermore, we are told that some of our neighbors are growing uneasy at our receiving such murdering Indians, as they style them. I fear we shall be obliged to set watches to keep such of them off as are disposed to quarrel with, or may attempt to hurt any of them.”
Tedyuskung attended a long conference in Philadelphia in the early part of 1758, and made trips to and from Bethlehem for this purpose.
He was back in Bethlehem in April, and on the 17th sent a number of the Delaware, who had wintered in the Moravian town, to Fort Allen, there to join Captain Jacob Arndt’s soldiers in ranging the frontiers. He also sent his sons, Captains John Jacob and Amos and three other Delaware over the Allegheny to the Indians towns of the Delaware and Shawnee.
Tedyuskung remained in Bethlehem, and Justice Horsfield wrote on April 18: “I never before was so much convinced of Tedyuskung’s zeal for the English cause.” Five days later, however, a soldier came to Bethlehem from Fort Allen with a letter from Captain Arndt in which he stated that he was having trouble with the Indians sent to the fort by Tedyuskung—the messengers, who were still there, as well as those who were to range being continually drunk, having brought with them some casks of rum from Easton.
Tedyuskung made another trip to Philadelphia in May to urge the Governor to again send the Commissioners to finish the fort and the houses. He returned to Bethlehem about May 8.
Reichel says: “When the swelling of the maple buds and the whitening of the shad-bush on the river’s bank betokened the advent of Spring, there were busy preparations going on in Tedyuskung’s company over the matter of their long-expected removal to the Indian Eldorado on the flats of the Winding River. It was the 16th of cornplanting month (May), the month called Tauwinipen, when the Delaware King, his Queen, his counsellors and his warriors led by the Commissioners, took up the line of march for Fort Allen, beyond there to strike the Indian trail that led over the mountains to Wyoming Valley—and on the going out of these spirits ‘The Crown’ was swept and garnished and Ephriam Colver, the publican, had rest.”
Gilbert Family in Indian Captivity Twenty-nine
Months Released August 22,1782
