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American Revolution, Andrew Lewis, Appalachia, Battle of Point Pleasant, Cayuga, Chief Cornstalk, Chief Logan, Daniel Greathouse, England, governor, Guyandotte Valley, history, Iroquois, James Logan, John Murray, Lord Dunmore, Michael Cresap, Mingo, Native American History, Native Americans, Ohio, Oneida, Pennsylvania, Six Nations, Susquehanna
From the Logan Banner of Logan, WV, comes this bit of history for Chief Logan, printed in 1937:
Family of Chief Logan Was Brutally Murdered After Battle of Pt. Pleasant
Chief Logan, the Cayuga Indian leader who was an important figure in the Indian Confederation in the early days of the Revolutionary war and for whom the city of Logan was named, was an instrument in the hands of Governor Dunmore, appointed by the English Parliament to conduct the affairs of the 13 colonies.
The family of Chief Logan was brutally murdered soon after the battle of Point Pleasant on October 10, 1774, in order to incite to new acts of murder and rapine the Indians whose order for fighting the courageous white settler was beginning to wane.
In the Battle of Point Pleasant the Indian Confederacy, commanded by Chief Cornstalk faced the white settlers under General Andrew Lewis and got a taste of the treatment they might expect in event England and the Colonies went to war with themselves on the side of the mother country.
Dr. Connelly, a deputy of Governor Dunmore, realized that the Indian desire for white scalps was somewhat satiated by the battle of Point Pleasant and the tribes were once gain becoming interested in their everyday life of hunting and shing. In order to offset this feeling of contentment, Dr. Connelly employed the English trader named Greathouse to incite the Indians to new acts of bloodshed.
Trader Greathouse knew of the popularity of the Cayuga chief Logan and rightly judged that an injustice done him would be an injustice to the majority of the tribes of the Confederacy.
Greathouse well-versed in the Indian situation west of the Alleghenies set out to the greatest harm to the Indians in the shortest time and chose the family of Chief Logan as the best possible victims of a white man’s outrage, knowing full well that Dr. Connelly had chosen a colonist well-known to the Indians to hold the “bag.”
The trader, posing as a representative of the English government, gained admittance to Chief Logan’s camp deep in the wilds of the Alleghenies while the latter was away on a hunting expedition. At an opportune moment when he knew that he would not be detected, Greathouse entered Chief Logan’s family circle of tepees and murdered the squaw and the Chief’s favorite children.
When the outrage was discovered by the braves, Greathouse, by instruction from Connelly, told of seeing a white Army officer’s horse near the camp that night before but though it to be of a courier. The unsuspecting braves took the explanation as good and allowed Greathouse to leave soon afterward.
Chief Logan returned from his hunting trip, found his family murdered and demanded retribution from the English.
Dr. Connelly definitely fixed the murder on a Captain Cresap, who at the time of the slaying was at his home in Maryland.
This, however, was enough for Chief Logan. A colonist, a member of the paleface band with whom a treaty had been made following the battle of Point Pleasant, had violated the trust. He returned to his Confederacy and began the work that Governor had anticipated.
The Indian tribes began new raids on the white settlers homes in the West and sufficiently retarded organization of a settlers’ regiment to allow Dunmore to make new inroads on the angry colonists in the East who were laying plans which culminated in the rebellion in 1776.
Dunmore’s strategy triumphed and probably held up the Revolution for at least a year.
Logan (WV) Banner, 19 April 1937
***
Life of Chief Logan Is An Interesting Narrative
Indian Chief Was Peaceful Until Massacre Of Family At Pt. Pleasant Changed Him To A Veritable Devil; Father Was French
Logan, chief of the Mingos, stands out as a romantic figure in the history of Indian warfare of this section.
His was a tragic role player on the shifting stage of border warfare between the white settlers who were attempting to penetrate the “wilderness” and the Indian tribes who were attempting to cling to their priority rights in this section before being pushed farther westward to the plains.
Logan was his place in history as an orator as well as a famed Indian warrior.
He was a true friend of the white man until, through the machinations of the English in an effort to incite the Indians to further bloodshed, his family was killed by a treacherous white trader named Greathouse.
Logan’s father was a French child who was captured by the Indians and adopted by the Oneida tribe that inhabited Eastern Pennsylvania and Western New York.
When he grew to manhood, he was possessed not only of a commanding stature, but of all the arts, wiles, traits, and characteristics endowed by nature and intellect to an Indian warrior.
By virtue of these he became chief of the tribe of the Susquehannas, who made their home in the Susquehanna valley of Pennsylvania.
The mother of Logan was a Mingo, or Cayuga, which tribe was a derelict branch of the Iroquois and the Six Great Nations.
It is believed that the influence of Logan’s mother on her son caused him to have attitude of tolerance and friendship toward the whites. Whether he husband influenced her sentiments for the whites is not definitely known.
As a matter of fact it was she who christened her son, the great and mighty warrior, “Logan,” in honor of James Logan, who was then secretary for Pennsylvania.
Logan’s Indian name was Tah-gah-jute, meaning “the young and mighty warrior.”
He was after a time chosen chief of the Mingo tribe of this section. As chief of the Mingos he was slow to anger, indulgent, considerate, and dealing in a kindly manner with those who dealt kindly with him.
Chief Logan married an Indian maiden whose name is not recorded. He reared a family in territory of the Guyandotte watershed and was relatively happy, living at peace, with man, until the English changed him from a peaceful Indian to a veritable devil by having massacred his family at a camp in the Ohio.
The stories of Chief Logan’s campaign against the white man after the atrocious murder of his family is recorded in history and tradition.
He lived to see his beloved hunting grounds desecrated by the white man and died a broken-hearted old chieftain somewhere in a camp on the Ohio.
A bronze replica of the mighty warrior has been erected in front of the courthouse at Williamson in memory of the Mingo chief. Logan and Logan county has honored his name by taking it for themselves.
Logan (WV) Banner, 1 May 1937
Martin County Courthouse in Inez, KY. 3 March 2018. Photo by Mom.
Brandon Ray Kirk 