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LOGAN, THE MINGO 
 
LOGAN THE MINGO 
 
 BY 
 
 FRANKLIN B. SAWVEL, Ph.D. 
 
 Member of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 RICHARD G. BADGER 
 
 THE GORHAM PRESS 
 
Copyright, 19 21, by Richard G. Badger 
 
 All Rights Reserved 
 
 Made in the United States of America 
 
 The Gorham Press, Boston, U. S. A. 
 
 APR -! 1991 
 SG' A614016 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 The purpose of this narrative is to recount the 
 events and achievements that make up the life 
 story of Logan, the Mingo, in the order of their 
 occurrence with a fullness and completeness not 
 hitherto attempted. 
 
 The author has used material from many rec- 
 ords and writers freely without acknowledging 
 the source in the text; but adds a bibliography of 
 Logan literature and list of works consulted and 
 drawn from which he hopes wall be a due and 
 adequate acknowledgement to each. The text 
 itself more than suggests the original source of 
 some of the subject matter. 
 
 The North American Indians did not have a 
 written language and left no literature to preserve 
 their myths and ideals by recounting deeds of 
 valor and chivalry of brave men and the devotion 
 of beautiful maidens; and no poetry to immortal- 
 ize their Wise Men and Chiefs. Their history 
 was written by their enemies and conquerors, 
 peoples of different nationalities and of different 
 culture and social ideals. 
 
 5 
 
6 Foreword 
 
 It is not surprising then that so few names have 
 come down to us and that our inheritance from 
 the lives of their capable and renowned leaders, 
 whether King, Chief or Sachem, in the struggle 
 for existence and for the attainment of what satis- 
 fied them as a worthy national and race ambition, 
 is so meager and so lightly appreciated. 
 
 The name Mingo, commonly applied to Logan, 
 is of Algonquin origin and means "stealthy or 
 treacherous." It was given to the Iroquois by the 
 Delawares and affiliated tribes and later became 
 the special name of the band of that nation, mostly 
 Senecas, that left the common home in New York 
 and migrated westward to the Ohio country. 
 When he moved from Pennsylvania, he cast his 
 fortunes with these wanderers; and though some 
 times called by his Indian name, Tah-gah-jute, he 
 was no longer called Shikellamy, but became 
 known to history as Logan, the Mingo. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I Logan's Forebears and Early Life . 13 
 II Logan is Chosen Deputy and Elected 
 
 Sachem 18 
 
 III He Meets Great Men in Council . . 22 
 
 IV A Period of Unrest and Distrust . . 27 
 V Five Years Among the Mountains . . 36 
 
 VI Some Causes of Revenge and Cruelty 43 
 
 VII Logan Moves to the Ohio Country . 52 
 
 VIII The Murder of Logan's Family . . 59 
 
 IX Values Placed on Human Life ... 63 
 
 X Personal Traits 6^ 
 
 XI Logan Takes Revenge 69 
 
 XII Dunmore's War 78 
 
 XIII Logan's Famous Speech 82 
 
 XIV Years of Uncertainty 87 
 
 XV Favors the British Cause — A Confes- 
 sion 98 
 
 XVI The End 100 
 
 XVII Tributes — in Song and Story . . . 102 
 
 Bibliography of Logan Literature . 109 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 Logan, the Mingo Frontispiece ^ 
 
 FACING 
 PAGE 
 
 Logan Spring, Rudsville, Pennsylvania . . 40 ^ 
 
 Logan Elm 60 *^ 
 
 Logan Monument, Auburn, New York . , 100 >/ 
 
LOGAN THE MINGO 
 
LOGAN THE MINGO 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 LOGAN'S FOREBEARS AND EARLY LIFE 
 
 Logan was human. His conduct shows what 
 Cooper calls the diversity or great antithesis of 
 character of the North American Indian. The 
 worst and best qualities of human beings were 
 joined in him. He had the gross instincts, cun- 
 ning and treachery, thirst for blood and revenge 
 of the Red Man and the sense of justice and 
 honor, love of virtue and peace and the reverence 
 for Deity of the White Man. There was some- 
 thing more noble in this son of the forest than his 
 primitive exterior and inborn savagery. He was 
 first of all a human being and then an Indian with 
 a vision. 
 
 His father was born in Montreal of Canadian 
 French parents and had been carried away by 
 the Indians when a child and brought up by the 
 Oneidas, a tribe of the Iroquois. The English 
 called him Shikellamy and the Moravian mission- 
 aries spelled it Shikellemus.^ When he grew to 
 
 * Indian names are often spelled in different ways and the 
 following are found in old records as variations: — Shikellimy, 
 
 13 
 
14 Logan the Mingo 
 
 manhood he married an Indian girl of the Cayugas 
 and lived for a time at the Indian village of Osco 
 or Wasco, now Auburn, New York. Whether 
 Shikellamy wore a tiny bow-and-arrow strung to 
 his neck on his hunting trips before our hero 
 saw the light as was the custom among the In- 
 dians when a boy child was wished for, tradition 
 has not told us. But to Shikellamy and his squaw 
 was born a son about the year seventeen hundred 
 twenty-five and they named him Tah-gah-jute, 
 which means, "his eyelashes stick out and above as 
 if looking through or over something — hence 
 spying." When the child was five years old the 
 parents moved to Shamokin where Shikellamy was 
 made Chief of the Indians around the place which 
 was also known as Fort Augusta. It is now Sun- 
 bury, Pennsylvania. 
 
 Tah-gah-jute was the second, one tradition says 
 the oldest, of four brothers and he had three 
 sisters. His father had been baptized in infancy 
 at Montreal into the Catholic faith. He was 
 converted to the Protestant religion by the preach- 
 ing of the Moravian missionaries at Shamokin and 
 the eagle-eyed boy was baptized by the same 
 Moravian Brethren and re-named Logan by the 
 
 Shakallamy, Shecalamy, Shekallamy, Shickalamy, Shikallamy, 
 Shikelimo, ShikelHma, Shikellemus, Shikellimus, Shikellimy, 
 Shykelimy, Shekellamy, Shick Calamy, Sicalamous, Swatana, 
 Swataney, etc. 
 
LogavLS Forebears and Early Life 15 
 
 fond and ambitious father after James Logan, 
 Secretary of the Province of Pennsylvania under 
 William Penn; for it was held to be a great honor 
 for an Indian to answer to the name of a white 
 man. So it came about that mixed, brave red 
 blood flowed in Logan's veins and honor crowned 
 his youthful brow, prophecies of the life-long and 
 eloquent advocate of peace between his race and 
 the white man he was to become and the ruthless, 
 savage foe when wronged beyond human endur- 
 ance. 
 
 We know little of the boy's life till he arrives 
 at the age of heroic deeds and tests of his innate 
 and keen sense of honor and duty. His after life 
 shows that he had mastered the arts of warfare, 
 of hunting and dressing skins and the nobler arts 
 of diplomacy and peace-making. He often went 
 on hunting trips to the mountain regions of west- 
 ern Pennsylvania and to Virginia and learned the 
 lay of the country so well that he became a 
 trusted guide and messenger. He became expert 
 with the bow-and-arrow and could throw the 
 deadly tomahawk with surer aim than his com- 
 panions. His greatest skill was in the use of the 
 flint-lock gun they got from the French and Eng- 
 lish, the most deadly weapon in war and in the 
 chase in those days, and no buck or doe escaped 
 his viligant eye and unerring aim. 
 
1 6 Logan the Mingo 
 
 He, too, married a Cayuga maid who bore him 
 several children of whose after life nothing is 
 known with certainty. She died of fever at 
 Shamokin in October, 1747, the same year he was 
 appointed Counsellor for the Cayugas. The fol- 
 lowing legend with its touch of romance survived 
 among the Cayugas and is worthy to be repeated* 
 as it probably refers to his second marriage. 
 Ontonegea was a famous Chief and a close friend 
 of Logan's father. A beautiful child was born 
 to him at Osco. Her eyes were piercing, her 
 face like the smiling sun, her person comely as a 
 flower and her manners gentle. From wigwam to 
 wigwam she tript like a fairy scattering brightness 
 and joy everywhere and when she glided through 
 the maize-fields she brought golden ears and 
 plenty. Ontonegea took her with him on a jour- 
 ney to Fort Orange where an officer in King 
 George's service on account of her remarkable 
 beauty and gentleness gave her an English name, 
 Alvaretta, which she kept ever afterwards. Shikel- 
 lamy did not forget his friendship for Alvaretta's 
 father and when Ontonegea died he adopted the 
 beautiful girl. Logan had become deeply attached 
 to her in childhood and because his father before 
 he died had requested him to marry Alvaretta, 
 "the marriage ceremony was performed in 1749 
 by Bishop Zeisberger, a pious missionary who ad- 
 
Logan's Forebears and Early Life 17 
 
 ministered the consolation of the gospel to his 
 dying parent." 
 
 At all events Logan married a second wife, a 
 Shawneese, who survived him but bore him no 
 children. His father had arisen to positions of 
 trust and honor with the Governor of the province 
 and among the settlers and traders. When he 
 went out on official business for the government 
 Logan accompanied him. At the age of twenty- 
 three he was sent alone as ambassador in his 
 father's place. That was the way — the school — 
 in which the young men were trained in diplomacy 
 and public speaking and Logan's after life shows 
 how well and richly he improved the opportunities 
 he had. Frequently after this during his father's 
 declining strength the son was sent on important 
 embassies to act for him. Shikellamy was a friend 
 of the English and admonished his sons to remain 
 friends of the white man. He died the year fol- 
 lowing the death of Logan's first wife and was 
 buried at Shamokin. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 LOGAN IS CHOSEN DEPUTY AND 
 ELECTED SACHEM 
 
 His death did not make Logan his successor. 
 By an Indian custom it fell to the mother's tribe 
 and to the oldest son if accounted worthy. His 
 older brother, Taghneghtoris, also called John 
 Shikellamy, had lost an eye before the father's 
 death and the Council of Chiefs rejected him as 
 their leader on that account and as the successor 
 of his father. The next spring, April twenty- 
 second, seventeen hundred forty-nine, Conrad 
 Weiser appointed Logan, on account of his ability, 
 honesty and prominence, in the name of the Gov- 
 ernor to succeed his father and sent a string of 
 wampum to the Onondagas to tell them of the 
 appointment. He accepted the office which was 
 duly confirmed by the Governor of the Province 
 of Pennsylvania and by the Council of Chiefs. 
 
 He inherited from his father almost unlimited 
 jurisdiction over the tribes north to the Great 
 Confederacy of the Iroquois, west as far as the 
 
 i8 
 
Chosen Deputy and Elected Sachem 19 
 
 crest of the Alleghenies and south, and lived at a 
 time when two powerful European nations and a 
 third weaker In numbers but with advantages in 
 her favor were savagely contending for the rich 
 prize of a new continent. It would perhaps be 
 too broad to say that he was destined to hold the 
 balance of power; but he was the sentry on the 
 battle line between barbarism and civilization. 
 How long the conflict between the Indian and the 
 Caucasian would have lasted had it not been for 
 his mediation, his sterling honesty and eloquent, 
 persistent counsel for peace between the races, can 
 not be set down by moons or seasons; nor what 
 the final outcome of the death grapple In which 
 Indian, French and Briton were locked In the 
 north and east and the Spaniard and Indian in the 
 south and west would have been. He chose to 
 play the role of friend of the white man and 
 peace-maker and to be a wise Sachem meant more 
 to him and to history than to be a great warrior. 
 He was a young man for so Important a posi- 
 tion In those days but he had the quiet dignity 
 and refinement of sentiment and feeling that dis- 
 tinguish the lofty minded and had won the con- 
 fidence of all. It was not long till the General 
 Council of the Onondagas raised him to Sachem 
 of the Shamokin Indians and elected him Sachem 
 of the Cayugas as well. There had been many 
 
20 Logan the Mingo 
 
 Sachems of the Iroquois covering a long period 
 of many generations but only Logan became really 
 famous in history. Yet of few other heroes of 
 his race is the history which has been preserved 
 less complete. 
 
 In May of the next year after his appointment 
 he and his oldest brother took part in a confer- 
 ence at Pennsboro to transact important business 
 for the Six Nations. After due deliberation their 
 plan was approved and an agreement was reached 
 that the government would remove the whites who 
 had settled on the lands belonging to his people 
 along the Juniata River. Events were moving 
 rapidly and Logan showed himself worthy of the 
 authority and confidence the government and his 
 kinsmen had placed in him. The provocations 
 were sometimes great and the situation galling. 
 When he made complaints to the government the 
 settlers or squatters were sometimes removed but 
 would return as soon as the officers of the law 
 were gone. 
 
 Fortunately during the next two years events 
 of only minor importance occurred that affected 
 his office and the discharge of his duties, for the 
 French and English were chiefly concerned with 
 the growing uneasiness and strife among them- 
 selves. He made his home at Shamokin. His 
 house was always open and he continued the hos- 
 
Chosen Deputy and Elected Sachem 21 
 
 pitality for which his father's house had been so 
 widely known; visitors were frequent and always 
 welcome. 
 
 He made formal complaint to the government 
 In 1753 that the traders were bringing scarcely 
 anything to the town but rum and flour. Though 
 the protest was repeated and such complaints were 
 frequently made they were not heeded by the 
 traders who were more interested in the revenue 
 they got from the sale of rum than they were in 
 the welfare of the people and improvement of the 
 town. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 HE MEETS GREAT MEN IN COUNCIL 
 
 Early in the spring of 1754 Logan was sent 
 with a message to the Six Nations and to invite 
 them to meet at Albany in the summer with the 
 agents of the Proprietaries for the purpose of 
 purchasing some land from them. Such negotia- 
 tions were usually called malcing a treaty. The 
 preliminary arrangements for the meeting were 
 all made by him to the satisfaction of both the 
 Six Nations and the Proprietaries and a great 
 council was held at Albany during the summer. 
 The Province of Pennsylvania was represented by 
 Governor John Penn, Benjamin Franklin, Richard 
 Peters and Isaac Norris, and Logan was the 
 speaker for the Shamokins and Cayugas. 
 
 A treaty was agreed upon and duly executed. 
 After the council had ended he sent a message to 
 Brother Onas, as he called the Governor, in 
 December informing the latter of his appoint- 
 ment at the treaty on June fourteenth as the agent 
 of the Six Nations to care for their lands at 
 
 22 
 
He Meets Great Men in Council 23 
 
 Wyoming and on the west branch of the Susque- 
 hanna. At another meeting of the Council with 
 the same distinguished men of the Province pres- 
 ent, July sixth, for the design to purchase all the 
 lands from the Susquehanna on the east to the 
 western boundary of William Penn's province, 
 which was then the Ohio line, the agents of the 
 government were told that Shamokin and Wyom- 
 ing would not be sold. They reserved these for 
 their own people as hunting grounds and Logan 
 was appointed to take care of them. He was 
 not to allow any whites to settle on either of the 
 two reserved tracts or on land contiguous to them 
 on the Susquehanna. The negotiations were 
 finished and the treaty made by which that large 
 territory was purchased from the Indians for the 
 insignificant sum of four hundred pounds sterling. 
 And on that memorable July sixth Logan signed 
 the deed or made his cross as one of the Sachems 
 of the Cayugas. The Governor invited him by 
 letter to be present the next summer when the 
 surveyors would run the line as they called it that 
 was to separate the reserved tracts or hunting 
 grounds from the settlements, and afterwards 
 called him "our good friend Shikellamy." During 
 this period of his life he was still known as 
 Shikellamy, especially when he acted in an official 
 capacity or signed documents for the tribes or the 
 
24 Logan the Mingo 
 
 province by making his mark in the form of a 
 cross or letter X. 
 
 But even at that early day treaties were some- 
 times regarded as mere scraps of paper. The 
 treaty was broken by the avaricious whites from 
 farther east soon after the Great Council ended 
 at Albany. People, chiefly from Connecticut, be- 
 gan to settle on the Wyoming lands in the early 
 autumn and before the year ended Logan sent 
 a message to the Governor of Pennsylvania and 
 said, "When the great treaty was held at Albany 
 this summer, the Six Nations in their Council 
 appointed me to the care of the lands at Wyoming 
 and north of the western branch of the Susque- 
 hanna which they keep for the use of the Indians 
 who are daily flocking there from all parts and 
 acquainted the Commission of Pennsylvania in the 
 presence of all people that I was their agent: 
 that they put those lands into my hands; and that 
 no white man should come and settle there; and 
 ordered me, if they did, to complain to Pennsyl- 
 vania; and to get them punished and turned off. 
 In view of this appointment I complain to Penn- 
 sylvania that some foreigners and strangers who 
 live on the other side of New York and have 
 nothing to do in these parts are coming like 
 flocks of birds to disturb me and settle those 
 lands ; and I am told they have bought those lands 
 
He Meets Great Men in Council 25 
 
 of the Six Nations since I left Albany and that 
 I have nothing further to do with them. I desire 
 you to send to those people not to come; and if 
 you do not prevent it, I shall be obliged to com- 
 plain to the Six Nations." Thus it happened that 
 the treaty was broken by the lawless whites before 
 they had time to run the line that was to set off 
 the two relatively small tracts the Indians had 
 reserved. The Governor upheld Logan in his 
 protest and promised to punish the offenders in 
 the future. 
 
 Conrad Weiser was official interpreter for the 
 government. He also carried on some missionary 
 work among them and built a log house for Logan 
 and his family in September of this year which 
 has been called the first log house erected in Sham- 
 okin. The town was known as a tough place even 
 for those days, Indians, traders and frontiersmen 
 alike — "The very seat of the prince of darkness," 
 *'The devil's own town." The tribes from the 
 north passed through it over the much used War- 
 riors Path on their way to the frequent wars with 
 the Catawbas in the south and a trail ran through 
 it from east to west. A smithy to mend their 
 guns and a mission house combined had been put 
 up and opened as far back as seventeen hundred 
 forty-seven by Bishop Zeisberger with Welser's 
 approval and in spite of Logan's protest and 
 
26 Logan the Mingo 
 
 remonstrances against the sale of rum by the 
 traders, fire-water was abundant and drunken 
 orgies were of frequent and almost nightly occur- 
 rence. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 A PERIOD OF UNREST AND DISTRUST 
 
 The defeat of the English under General Brad- 
 dock by the French and their Indian allies near 
 Pittsburgh in July, seventeen-fifty-five, spread dis- 
 content among Logan's wards and the Delawares 
 east of the mountains and they began to side with 
 the French in the north. Conrad Weiser wrote 
 in his diary August 28, 1750, that the Onondagas, 
 Cayugas and Senecas had turned Frenchmen and 
 with them some of the Oneidas. But now the 
 unrest became general and could not be allayed 
 by Logan. He opposed the plan of leaving Sham- 
 okin and was encouraged by the leading Chiefs of 
 the Delawares; but he could not persuade them to 
 remain. In October a number of Indians were 
 killed at Penn's Creek. His older brother and 
 Chief Scarrooyady and" in fact all the friendly 
 Chiefs of the Delawares and Shawneese joined 
 with Logan In counseling the young warriors to 
 remain quiet. At the same time they urged the 
 Governor to adopt speedy and energetic plans for 
 
 27 
 
28 Logan the Mingo 
 
 defending the colony and waiting Indians. But 
 his white friends engaged in a parley over taxes 
 till it was too late to profit by the foresight and 
 wise counsel offered; and failure to heed the warn- 
 ing and advice promptly resulted in great detri- 
 ment to the community. 
 
 Logan remained behind but was mistreated by 
 the fearful and over zealous settlers and also by 
 some British officers to whom he had a right to 
 look for protection. Indian scalps were being 
 brought in and threats to kill him were made. 
 Finally he was persuaded to join the discontented 
 tribesmen in the north. What was more disquiet- 
 ing to him was the attitude of the Delawares who 
 decided In a council held at Shamokin that they 
 would go to the French settlement in the north and 
 when he hesitated to join them, they told him if 
 he did not go they would look upon him as their 
 enemy; and to be branded as an enemy usually 
 meant torture or death. Late in the autumn he 
 left Shamokin with his kindred and went up the 
 north-east branch of the Susquehanna to Cayuga 
 Lake to live among people who were hostile to the 
 English. 
 
 When he got to the Delaware village In the 
 north he agreed to go on the war-path against the 
 English to avenge the many scalps that had been 
 taken and the threats against his own life before 
 
A Period of Unrest and Distrust 29 
 
 he moved. But some friendly Indian messengers 
 met him and persuaded him to remain friendly 
 to the whites and he did not join them. 
 
 It soon became known that he had gone and 
 both the Governor of the Province and Conrad 
 Welser sent messengers after him with belts of 
 wampum to Invite him to return. He received 
 them kindly and the next year taking his wife with 
 him he made a journey to Bethlehem where he 
 met an old friend, the missionary David Zeis- 
 berger. He told Zelsberger that he moved north 
 because the Irish people at McKees Fort near 
 Harrlsburg treated him badly and threatened to 
 kill him and that he left his guns and all he had, 
 even his clothes. After three days, on the fourth 
 of September, he resumed his journey and went 
 on to Philadelphia to see Governor Hamilton. 
 He told him the story of his wrongs and that he 
 did not want to run away but the whites had 
 abused him and threatened to kill him and he 
 was forced to go. He showed the belt of wampum 
 the messengers had brought him to Cayuga Lake 
 with the invitation to return and said he took it 
 as a reproof for going away the fall before to 
 live among enemies In a wilderness where they 
 were likely to perish for want of provision. He 
 repeated the Invitation of the Governor to come 
 back to Shamokin or to his own house or some- 
 
30 Logan the Mingo 
 
 place in the neighborhood where he could keep a 
 watch over them and supply them with necessary- 
 provisions, as they were like little children who 
 did not know what was for their own good. He 
 told him further that they had repented and were 
 sorry they had run away when they should have 
 gone to his house at Tulpehocken for protection 
 instead; that they were deceived by the Delawares 
 and lost themselves and that his brother was also 
 led astray; but "we have agreed to come back to 
 Shamokin or to your house as soon as we can 
 with safety and some other friendly Indians have 
 promised to come with us." 
 
 The Governor tried to compose him and per- 
 suade him to remain at Philadelphia or go to his 
 old home at Shamokin where a strong fort was 
 being built that would protect him. But Logan 
 feared for the safety of his kindred he had left 
 in the north and hastened back to join them. 
 
 During the next two years or more the French 
 with their Indian allies were having partial suc- 
 cesses in the Champlain country. But Quebec was 
 taken by the British in 1759 and the situation was 
 completely changed. Logan remained in his cabin 
 through it all and took no part in the conflict. He 
 did not change the course he had so consistently 
 followed unless it was to become a more ardent 
 advocate of peace. That he was dissatisfied and 
 
A Period of Unrest and Distrust 31 
 
 restless In the north he showed by holding fre- 
 quent communications with his old friends In the 
 Province and by his words and conduct. After 
 an Interrupted absence of five years and In answer 
 to repeated promises of the protection of the gov- 
 ernment from which he had fled, he came back 
 to Shamokin early In February of seventeen-slxty, 
 pleading that he had been ''carried away," and 
 was restored to his former trust. He sent a mes- 
 sage to Conrad Welser ten days before he re- 
 turned Informing him when he expected to arrive 
 and that a Great Council of the Chiefs was soon 
 to be held and that he was Invited to attend It. 
 He wished to confer with Welser before he went 
 to the council as he knew that the Governor 
 wanted a road cut from the settlements to Shamo- 
 kin, "That the Indians might be supplied with 
 goods at Shamokin at all times of the year by a 
 nearer, safer and more commodious way than the 
 dangerous and roundabout way of the Susque- 
 hanna which Is sometimes Impassable In summer 
 and all the winter admits of no transportation of 
 goods or provisions." Welser was sick at the 
 time and not able to go, but sent his son to meet 
 him at Shamokin. At the meeting Logan urged 
 the Importance of presenting the road matter to 
 the Chiefs at their assembly and proved his friend- 
 ship and loyalty by offering to bring the matter to 
 
32 Logan the Mingo 
 
 the attention of the Onondaga council about to be 
 held. His services were gladly accepted. He was 
 given the message and authority and promised to 
 use his persuasion and influence to have the road 
 plan approved. It will be noticed that he prom- 
 ised to urge by persuasion, which shows a deep- 
 seated Indian trait and a prominent trait in 
 Logan's character. They would listen to argu- 
 ments and harangues and to many speeches for 
 days in succession, but to force never without 
 resistance. They resented it, and any attempt to 
 force an issue was sure to bring defeat or end in 
 war, for they scorned coercion. 
 
 Conrad Weiser and David Zeisberger, the mis- 
 sionary, had been frequent visitors at his home 
 and were his warm friends and trusted coun- 
 sellors. After the defeat of the French at Quebec 
 the duties of the office of Deputy were changed 
 and much more simple than they had been and 
 his services as the "true correspondent" of Penn- 
 sylvania and agent to negotiate with the Six 
 Nations were less required than formerly. The 
 settlements were growing stronger in influence and 
 population. In addition the end of the war be- 
 tween the French and English was in sight. But 
 his concern for the welfare and behavior of his 
 own people as their Sachem did not grow less and 
 
A Period of Unrest and Distrust 2'i 
 
 his efforts to bring about peace and good will 
 did not wane or fail him. 
 
 The last official acts and service as Deputy for 
 the Province of Pennsylvania of which a record 
 was made and preserved is his attendance at the 
 Great Conference at Lancaster in August, seven- 
 teen hundred sixty-two. It is said that his two 
 only brothers then living and several Chiefs of 
 the Cayugas and Senecas went with him on this 
 occasion. A treaty was made between the gov- 
 ernment and both the northern and western tribes 
 whose terms were satisfactory to both parties, the 
 Indians and the English, and hopes for peace be- 
 tween them were once more entertained. From 
 this meeting he went to Philadelphia on an im- 
 portant mission which he presented in person to 
 Governor Hamilton. He besought the Governor 
 to remove the profane and profiteering agent at 
 Shamokin and appealed to him for better prices 
 to be paid to the Indians for their merchandise 
 which consisted chiefly of dressed skins. The 
 appeal was courteously received and he was prom- 
 ised a prompt, due and proper consideration of 
 his request. 
 
 It was June of the year following, after he re- 
 turned to Shamokin, the scene of his youth and 
 early manhood, that he promised to report any 
 
34 Logan the Mingo 
 
 approach of enemies he might scent or hear of. 
 But the town had been despoiled, the buildings 
 such as they were mostly torn down, and the near- 
 by hunting grounds no longer furnished his 
 kindred ample food. His official duties were 
 finished and he was now ready to retire and move 
 on to better and more secure hunting grounds. 
 For sixteen years he had faithfully and ably done 
 the duties of his two-fold office. The nature of 
 these onerous tasks had made him the arbiter of 
 differences of opinion In regard to the material, 
 social and moral well-being of the two races. The 
 government approved his conduct and highly 
 appreciated his services. Superiors In office and 
 associates from the Governor down held him in 
 high esteem for his candor and impartial dealing 
 and often rewarded and commended him for hon- 
 esty and ability. Without boast he could say in 
 the words of Black Hawk to President i\ndrew 
 Jackson spoken more than half a century later, 
 "I am a man and you are another." 
 
 The poet Thomas Campbell preserves a beau- 
 tiful tradition In the romance of ^'Gertrude of 
 Wyoming," that Logan as "Outalissi" rescued a 
 child In seventeen hundred sixty-three by unbind- 
 ing Its mother from a tree to which she was tied 
 by her Indian captors to be tortured and burnt. 
 The father, "a captain of the British band," had 
 
A Period of Unrest and Distrust ^S 
 
 just been killed In a war with the Hurons. When 
 loosed the mother swooned away, praying that 
 her orphan boy might be taken to her kindred. 
 After a long and dangerous journey the mag- 
 nanimous Chief, 
 
 . . . the eagle of my tribe, have rushed 
 With the lorn dove. . . . 
 
 reached Wyoming on the Susquehanna with the 
 little child and delivered him to her kindred In 
 safety. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 FIVE YEARS AMONG THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 The year seventeen hundred sixty-five brought 
 a change and rest to Logan. Early in the sum- 
 mer he moved to Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, 
 and built himself a cabin near Reedsville and hard 
 by a limestone spring which is known as Logan's 
 Spring to the present day. The site he chose for 
 his new home was only a mile or two above a 
 charming mountain gorge called the Narrows in 
 Jack's Mountain. Here he lived in the midst of 
 untamed forest wilds for the next five years in 
 peace and quiet and made an honest living by 
 hunting and selling dressed skins, mostly deer 
 skins. His conduct and devotion to industry and 
 domestic life during this brief period show his 
 high sense of responsibility and justice in civil 
 life to advantage and much to his credit. 
 
 The religion, philosophy and social polity of 
 the Indian at his best contained only the first prin- 
 ciples of civilization, but these were of a high 
 order. Their God was the potency of all Nature 
 
 36 
 
Five Years Among the Mountains 37 
 
 symbolized by the Great Spirit, Manitou. And 
 their primitive mind and concrete imagination 
 found Deity in every created object and thing and 
 everywhere — in themselves, in sun, moon and 
 stars; in trees and flowers, forest and stream; in 
 wind, rain and storm; in cloud and sky and in all 
 animal life. But Logan could add to innate rev- 
 erence his early Moravian Christian training 
 which in his most trying moments and tragic 
 deeds never entirely forsook him. He was master 
 of the dialects of the various and many tribes and 
 besides could speak both French and English and 
 was well equipped for the position he filled of 
 mediator between the Red Man and the pioneer. 
 Within a year after he settled at Reedsvllle 
 three Indians stopped one Sunday morning at the 
 home of a white man in Raccoon valley which 
 was miles away from Kishacoquillas valley where 
 Logan had his cabin. They set up their guns out- 
 side of the house and went in. It was noticed by 
 the family that one of the visitors could speak 
 English. After several hours of talking and jab- 
 bering among themselves and apparently amusing 
 themselves, one of the boys of the family got a 
 Bible and read two or three chapters from the 
 Book of Judges about Sampson and the Philis- 
 tines. The father observed that the one who 
 could speak English paid close attention to what 
 
38 Logan the Mingo 
 
 was read and remarked what a great benefit it 
 would be to the Indians if they could read. "Oh, 
 a great many Indians on the Mohawk River can 
 read the book that speaks of God," was the reply. 
 They were never in a hurry and the three or four 
 hours were strenuous ones to their host. They 
 left peaceably and several days later the family 
 learned that the one who could speak English was 
 Logan. What one says and does reveal his real 
 character; in fact, they are the outward signs of 
 what is within. But the recorded words of Logan 
 are not as many as one would wish for, too few 
 indeed, because he could not write them down 
 himself. Yet accounts of some of his most kindly 
 acts and most illuminating utterances have been 
 preserved with a curious care and exactness. 
 Judged by these he stands alone among the re- 
 nowned heroes of his race; for while Nature made 
 many Indians, Chiefs and Sachems, she made but 
 one Logan. 
 
 The following incidents are connected with the 
 next three years of his life while he lived in the 
 forest and mountain wilds of Mifflin County and 
 were printed in the Pittsburgh Daily American of 
 March 21, 1842, in a letter written by Hon. R. 
 P. Maclay of the state senate of Pennsylvania to 
 George Darsie of the same body. They reveal 
 
Five Years Among the Mountains 39 
 
 his Inner human nature and sense of honor and 
 a high standard of justice and right. 
 
 Dear Sir: — 
 
 Allow me to correct a few inaccuracies as to 
 place and names in the anecdote of Logan, the 
 celebrated Mingo Chief, as published in the Pitts- 
 burgh Daily Amej'ican of March seventeenth, tq 
 which you call my attention. The person sur- 
 prised at the spring, now called Big Spring, and 
 about four miles west of Logan's Spring, was 
 William Brown — the first actual settler in Kisha- 
 coquillas valley and one of the associate judges of 
 Mifflin County from its organization till his death 
 at the age of ninety-one or two, and not Samuel 
 Maclay as stated by Dr. Hildreth. I will give you 
 the anecdote as I heard it related by Judge Brown 
 himself while on a visit to my brother who then 
 owned and occupied the Big Spring farm, four 
 miles west of Reedsville: — 
 
 "The first time I ever saw the spring," said the 
 old gentleman, "my brother, James Reed, and my- 
 self had wandered out of the valley in search of 
 land and finding it very good we were looking for 
 a spring. About a mile from this we started a 
 Bear and separated to get a shot at him. I was 
 traveling along looking about on the rising ground 
 for the Bear when I came suddenly on the spring; 
 and being dry and more rejoiced to find so fine a 
 spring than to have killed a dozen Bears I set 
 my rifle against a bush and rushed down the bank 
 and laid down to drink. Upon putting my head 
 down I saw reflected in the water on the opposite 
 
40 Logan the Mingo 
 
 side the shadow of a tall Indian. I sprang to my 
 rifle, when the Indian gave a yell whether for 
 peace or war I was not just sufficiently master 
 of my faculties to determine; but upon my seizing 
 my rifle and facing him he knocked up the pan of 
 his gun, threw out the priming and extended his 
 open palm toward me in token of friendship. 
 After putting down our guns we again met at the 
 spring and shook hands. This was Logan, the 
 best specimen of humanity I ever met with, either 
 white or red. He could speak a little English and 
 told me there was another white hunter a little 
 way down the stream and offered to guide me to 
 his camp. There I first met your father. 
 
 "We visited Logan at his camp at Logan's 
 Spring and your father and he shot at a mark for 
 a dollar a shot. Logan lost four or five rounds 
 and acknowledged himself beaten. When we were 
 about to leave him he went into his hut and 
 brought out as many deer-skins as he had lost 
 dollars and handed them to Mr. Maclay, who 
 refused to take them alleging that we had been 
 his guests and did not come to rob him — ^that the 
 shooting had been only a trial of skill and the bet 
 merely nominal. Logan drew himself up with 
 great dignity and said: 'Me bet to make you 
 shoot your best — me gentleman and me take your 
 dollar if me beat.' So he was obliged to take the 
 skins or affront a friend whose sense of honor 
 would not permit him to receive even a horn of 
 powder in return. 
 
 *'The next year," said the old gentleman, "I 
 brought my wife up and camped under a big wal- 
 
Five Years Among the Mountains 41 
 
 nut tree on the bank of Tea Creek until I had 
 built a cabin near where the mill now stands and 
 have lived in the valley ever since. Poor Logan 
 (and the big tears coursed each other down his 
 cheeks) soon went to the Allegheny and I never 
 saw him again." 
 
 The above narrative was signed by R. P. 
 Maclay and the incidents related were confirmed 
 by a daughter of Judge Brown, Mrs. Norris, who 
 lived near the site of Logan's Spring. She is our 
 authority also for the following incident. Mrs. 
 Judge Brown, her mother, happened to speak in 
 Logan's presence one day of her little girl's need 
 of a pair of shoes. A day or two after hearing 
 this Logan asked Mrs. Brown one morning if he 
 might take her little two-year-old girl, a younger 
 sister of Mrs. Norris, to his cabin to make her a 
 pair of moccasins. The mother was surprised and 
 alarmed by such a request, but could not refuse 
 to let him take her. He kept the child all day 
 and brought her back safely at sunset with a pair 
 of new deerskin moccasins on her tiny feet. On 
 another occasion it is said he won the confidence of 
 a little boy while the father was away from home 
 and took him to his cabin, but returned with the 
 child unharmed before nightfall clad in a pair of 
 bright new moccasins. 
 
 We meet Logan again at Standing Stone, now 
 
42 Logan tht Mingo 
 
 Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, where he carved on a 
 giant oak tree a full-length figure of an Indian 
 brandishing a tomahawk. It was probably done 
 while making a friendly visit at Standing Stone 
 camp, as it was not far away from Reedsville, or 
 while on that melancholy march with his race to- 
 wards the setting sun. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 SOME CAUSES OF REVENGE AND 
 CRUELTY 
 
 The conflict between the Indian and the Cau- 
 casian had been going on for more than two cen- 
 turies before Logan was born and had increased 
 in wanton savagery from generation to genera- 
 tion. The Red Men's bitter hatred for the 
 Pale-face and thirst for his blood and scalp were 
 consistent with their view and measure of the in- 
 justice and wrongs they had suffered and were 
 still meeting in the loss of their ancient hunting 
 grounds and the desecration of the burial places 
 of their fathers and kindred. They believed these 
 had been given to them by the Great Spirit for 
 a home and for a sacred resting place of their 
 dead forever. In the unequal conflict they had 
 the moral advantage of fighting, torturing and 
 killing the intruders for a principle while their 
 enemies were killing and slaughtering them for 
 the sake of plunder. Several centuries that pre- 
 ceded the dark period in Logan's life had seen 
 
 43 
 
44 Logan the Mingo 
 
 bloodshed and savagery, insatiable cupidity and a 
 hoggish greed for gold. How unhuman it all 
 seems now; while the heartless butchery and 
 brazen bad faith too often shown, not to say 
 hypocrisy of those who posed as the Indian^s 
 friends and protectors, staggers belief. They 
 were slain as savages, and what wicked crimes 
 have been committed under the disguise of "sav- 
 ages" and "heretics." As Victor Hugo would 
 say, "They are the brutalities of progress." 
 
 When Christopher Columbus arrived and after 
 he mingled with the natives he said, "The Indians 
 are not savage, but gentle, gracious, without know- 
 ing what evil is, without stealing, without killing." 
 Sebastian Cabot, Americus Vespuclus, Ponce de 
 Leon, Jean Ribaut, Laudonnler and Menendez — 
 all give the same report and testimony that on 
 their arrival and first meeting and intercourse with 
 the natives they found them kind-hearted and 
 peace-loving. And every school boy and girl 
 knows well the story of William Penn, whom the 
 Indians called "The Red Man's friend." It was 
 after the Spaniards, French and English began to 
 make slaves of them by force and torture and be- 
 gan to kill each other, together with such Indians 
 as had become friends of one or the other adven- 
 turer or exploring party, that they became sus- 
 picious of all strangers and foreigners and became 
 
Some Causes of Revenge and Cruelty 45 
 
 hostile to them. The French incited them against 
 the Spaniards, the English inflamed them against 
 the French and the Spaniards led them in battle 
 against both of the others. When Menendez, 
 "By the Grace of God" ! ! killed Ribaut and three 
 hundred fifty French Huguenots of his ship- 
 wrecked and helpless companions without mercy 
 he also murdered the innocent Indians nearby, 
 men, women and children, and burned their village 
 with the same savage barbarity. 
 
 The Indians became at once the buffer race in 
 the wanton conflicts of the Spanish, French and 
 English and were the greatest sufferers from 
 every point of view. If it is true that man is not 
 a working animal by nature, as psychologists 
 assure us, but would rather fight than work, it is 
 easy to understand why the Indians disdained 
 every attempt to make them the toiling slaves of a 
 strange and foreign race whatever the pretext 
 offered or hopes held out to them. They had 
 then an inborn aversion for the exacting toil that 
 civilization imposes as the price of human prog- 
 ress and advancement In the arts, industry and 
 learning. Yet they could not get along without 
 some kind of training suited to their needs. The 
 youth who were to become the future brave war- 
 riors, Chiefs and Sachems were Instructed by the 
 old men and Wise men of the tribes. They were 
 
46 Logan the Mingo 
 
 taught to make weapons for hunting and how to 
 use them and instruments for self-protection and 
 defense. Around the camp fires and in the wig- 
 wams the story of their once happy past when 
 they lived in peace and security was rehearsed to 
 them and the wrongs they and their fathers had 
 suffered at the hands of their enemies were recited 
 and repeated to them over and over again till 
 the stories became part of their lives. It is human 
 nature, too, to magnify injuries and brood over 
 them. So these stories were passed down and on 
 from one generation to future generations. 
 
 That the freedom which they valued so much 
 was becoming less and less they knew only too 
 well. The restraints forced upon them became 
 more galling to endure from father to son and 
 the hatred for the pale faced Intruder grew deeper 
 and more savagely bitter as they saw their braves 
 and their women and children falling at the hands 
 of foreign foes, saw their villages burned and 
 their once broad and undisputed hunting grounds 
 taken away from them. 
 
 Among the different tribes the same opinion 
 and estimate of the white man prevailed, whether 
 held by the Iroquois, Algonquin, Delaware, Shaw- 
 neese or the far-away Semlnoles of the south land 
 whose verdict was summed up and tersely ex- 
 pressed In the phrase, *'Es-ta-had-kee, ho-lo- 
 
Some Causes of Revenge and Cruelty 47 
 
 wa-gus, lox-ee-o-jus," — "white man no good, lie 
 heap too much." It is a sad commentary on the 
 practice freely indulged in during those early 
 Colonial times that scarcely one of the many 
 treaties made with the Indians was fully and faith- 
 fully kept and the pledges redeemed, as the 
 records of the Indian Bureau at Washington 
 show. The same records show also that the 
 whites were the delinquents and aggressors oftener 
 than the Indians. 
 
 Nor is it less a reproach to the intelligence and 
 morality of those who professed to want to help 
 them to better modes of living to know and re- 
 flect that the language and dialects of the Indians 
 had no words of disrespect for their deity, the 
 Great Spirit, and contained no words of profanity; 
 that drunkenness was not known and that lying, 
 cheating and stealing among themselves were rare 
 indeed if not unknown when the white man first 
 came In contact with them and learned their 
 speech. Honor and truthfulness were cardinal 
 virtues to them. Many of the snakish vices found 
 among them through their later tribal history 
 were Imitations and retalliations which they had 
 learned by sad experience from their alien associ- 
 ates and conquerors and were not original with 
 them. 
 
 From the time the explorers came in search of 
 
48 Logan the Mingo 
 
 treasures and gold and later as the foreigners be- 
 gan to plant colonies the conditions were not con- 
 ducive to the mutual trust and confidence between 
 the races which each professed to be anxious for 
 and to be working to bring about. The whites 
 soon learned to know the treacherous and re- 
 vengeful nature of the Indians and mistrusted 
 them. The Indians in turn were jealous of the 
 whites and looked upon them as intruders and not 
 without ample reasons mistrusted their motives 
 for invading their lands. Underneath the short 
 periods of outward quiet was the remembrance of 
 the past. Whatever else they lacked in mental 
 poise and equipment, they had retentive and virile 
 memories and did not forget for a day the Injus- 
 tice they felt they were the victims of nor the 
 wrongs, real or fancied, they had suffered. They 
 were treacherous and were becoming more so, but 
 not among themselves. 
 
 When the French assumed to be their masters 
 they were promised that they would be protected 
 against their enemy, the English, and that their 
 women and children would be safe and their 
 homes and hunting grounds preserved. Then the 
 English gained a firm foothold in the east and 
 made the same promises and each gave the bewil- 
 dered Red Men gifts, guns, ammunition and bar- 
 rels of rum to confirm the promises they made and 
 
So7ne Causes of Revenge and Cruelty 49 
 
 to assure them of the love and good will of the 
 Great Father as they called the King of each. 
 But the wily Indian was a close observer and was 
 clear enough of vision and keen enough in judging 
 to suspect that the ulterior purpose was to take 
 their lands away from them and destroy the hunt- 
 ing grounds on which they depended for food and 
 existence. They could not serve two masters and 
 deceit and treachery were forced upon them. The 
 effect of these conditions was bad and tended to 
 debauch them. Chief Custaloga told the British 
 officer at Fort Pitt of their distrust and fear when 
 he said, "We have, therefore, also to hope that 
 what you have said to us upon this head comes 
 from your hearts and not with a design to amuse 
 or deceive us." 
 
 But what has this to do with the life of Logan, 
 the patriot? the reader may ask. It had much to 
 do In shaping the course he followed and in both 
 molding and testing his character. He could not 
 belie his ancestral inheritance nor forget his own 
 past. New England and the Immediate east dealt 
 more humanely with the benighted savages and 
 did not Incur their worst hatred. The Moravian 
 Brethren and the Jesuit missionaries gained their 
 confidence by treating them with such human kind- 
 ness and justice that they became firm and trusted 
 friends, learned from them the useful ways of 
 
50 Logan the Mingo 
 
 peace and industry and lived among them or in 
 their own towns under the fostering protection 
 and encouragement of their benefactors in peace 
 and safety. Other bands like the Six Nations in 
 New York and smaller groups in places made 
 secure for them by William Penn became gradu- 
 ally settled and peaceful. 
 
 But the tribes and remnants of tribes in the 
 Ohio country continued to resist the advance of 
 the frontiersmen, scorn the encroachments on 
 their broad domains and fight for the personal 
 liberty of which they were both proud and jealous. 
 The ancient moorings were giving away and 
 though submission or extinction inevitably awaited 
 them they were slow to see the danger and not yet 
 willing to accept the fate which had already been 
 sealed. They hoped against hope and their spirits 
 were still unconquerable. 
 
 It was among these western tribes that Logan 
 now decided to cast his fortunes and make his 
 home and share their hopes and griefs. He was 
 still the wise counselor for peace and hoped 
 against all odds that the government which had 
 protected him so long and which he had served 
 so faithfully would set things right and keep the 
 aggressors out of the western country where they 
 might again live in peace to themselves. French 
 and Spanish interests and influence had largely 
 
Some Causes of Revenge and Cruelty 51 
 
 disappeared and the conflict was now and con- 
 tinued to be between the unsubdued tribes who 
 were encouraged by a few mercenary whites on 
 the one side, and the frontiersmen and officers of 
 the English government on the other. The vital 
 issue and alternatives that faced them were 
 whether they would yield to the advancing 
 civilization which they did not understand and 
 become a part of It to advance with It and like- 
 wise receive a share of the promised benefits and 
 wealth of the new order; or stubbornly choose 
 the slavery or extinction that seemed to await 
 them. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 LOGAN MOVES TO THE OHIO COUNTRY 
 
 What purpose Logan had in his mind or what 
 influences induced him to abandon the quiet home 
 among the mountains near a growing settlement 
 of friendly pale-faces who trusted him and appre- 
 ciated his dependable honesty and character and 
 migrate westward to live among his own restless 
 and war-like people where life was less secure, 
 was not regarded as a matter of sufficient impor- 
 tance to be made an item of record. Was it on 
 account of his love of adventure, love of the 
 simple life into which he had been born free from 
 what must have been to him artificial niceties, 
 false modesties and luxuries of the new mode of 
 living that were thrusting themselves in his way 
 with the added desire for the freedom which un- 
 tamed forests and streams offered? Or was he 
 impelled by love of his own rugged, roving, 
 leisure-loving kinsmen and a lingering hope and 
 ambition to save their lands and homes from the 
 spoilers by eventually getting a boundary line set 
 
 52 
 
Logan Moves to the Ohio Country 53 
 
 up that would separate the two races, the red and 
 white, for all time to come — a treaty boundary 
 that would be respected and faithfully kept by 
 both as inviolable? Or was he pushed out by the 
 new westward-marching empire? Whatever the 
 causes or influences may have been that brought 
 him to a decision, he moved to the Allegheny 
 River region in 1770. The name Allegheny was 
 at that time a rather indefinite term and applied 
 to the Ohio as well, for the latter was but a con- 
 tinuation of the former. He took his family with 
 him and lived for three years at the mouth of 
 Beaver Creek. He was visited by the noted 
 annalist of the Indian race, Heckewelder, in his 
 new home. McClure, the missionary, visited him 
 the next year after Heckewelder's visit and found 
 him under the influence of rum and painted up as 
 a warrior. Heckewelder visited him a second 
 time two years after his first visit. He explained 
 and lamented the difl'icult if not impossible task 
 of holding the young men in check and from mak- 
 ing brutish reprisals when under the influence of 
 drink. In the midst of new surroundings he was 
 also face to face with changed relations and con- 
 ditions. It is true the Mingoes, Delawares and 
 Shawneese, who now dwelt north of the upper 
 Ohio and westward to the Muskingum and Scioto, 
 were migrants from his old territorial jurisdic- 
 
54 Logan the Mingo 
 
 tion in the Susquehanna region south of the lands 
 of the Great Iroquoian Confederacy and were not 
 entire strangers to him; but the whites were new. 
 George Croghan was interpreter and Deputy 
 Indian agent for western Pennsylvania and lived 
 above Pittsburgh. Conferences were frequently 
 held between the agent and officers of the govern- 
 ment on the one side and groups of Chiefs chosen 
 from the different tribes on the other; — sometimes 
 at Croghan's house and other times at Fort Pitt. 
 But Logan did not appear among the Chiefs as 
 an ambasador. When he retired from the office 
 of Deputy on leaving Shamokin it was final and 
 he did not re-enter the service. Whether this 
 holding himself aloof was voluntary on his part 
 or because he was not authorized to be a mediator 
 can not be said. His disposition was by nature 
 modest and retiring and he did not mingle with 
 the Virginians who claimed all the lands in the 
 Monongahela and Ohio valleys, as he had associ- 
 ated with the leaders of the Province and fron- 
 tiersmen east of the mountains. The followers 
 of William Penn and his policy were trusted 
 friends of the children of the forest; but the Vir- 
 ginians with whom he now had to deal were 
 different. Protection of life and property and the 
 amassing of more acres and more wealth were 
 still the chief ends to be attained. Strife prevailed 
 
Logan Moves to the Ohio Country 55 
 
 rather than friendly concern for the common weal, 
 and the relations were not very cordial at this 
 time. 
 
 His work as a peace-maker and counsel as the 
 friend of the white man were carried on with the 
 tribes in their Assemblies and through the Coun- 
 cils of Chiefs. He was his own ambassador, and 
 had to bargain at longer range and less directly 
 and intimately than before. The separation and 
 recluse position gave him more range, perhaps, 
 and offered greater temptation to indulge the 
 fondness for rum he confessed to Heckewelder — 
 a weakness which his father abhorred and never 
 indulged in himself because he said, "It makes 
 white men fools." 
 
 After the war between the French and English 
 ended in favor of the latter, the Indians, who had 
 been holding the balance of power and had be- 
 come vain and conceited over their importance, 
 now found themselves slighted and neglected and 
 treated as so many wild beasts to be hunted and 
 shot down as trophies of superior marksmanship 
 or "for sport," as one fully reliable and well- 
 informed author puts it. Whites would disguise 
 themselves as Indians and thought little more of 
 killing Red Men than of killing bears and buffa- 
 loes; and the tortures and death inflicted on the 
 whites by the Indians were even more hideous and 
 
£6 Logan the Mingo 
 
 revolting. To such lengths had race hatred 
 driven them in Logan's time that mutual distrust 
 had become criminal and brutish. The attitude 
 and environment were changed and his personal 
 influence was less; but he did not give up nor did 
 the execrations which were heaped upon his kin- 
 dred drive him away from being a friend of the 
 white man. 
 
 Logan went to Fort Pitt frequently to trade 
 and no doubt visited the savage warrior, Kiasutha, 
 at his village located at the mouth of Squaw Run, 
 eight miles above on the north bank of the Alle- 
 gheny. But no mention Is found In the scanty 
 chronicles of those days that he attended councils 
 or joined the grim warrior In border raids, though 
 their camps were only fifty miles apart, which to 
 the fleet-footed Indian with his roving habits 
 could not be called distant. He took no interest, 
 neither any share, in torturing prisoners, even 
 though they happened to fall victims of their own 
 cruelty. The traders at Fort Franklin were not 
 too far away to get part of his merchandise and 
 he was a welcome visitor at Custaloga town up 
 the old Trail along French Creek, made famous 
 by Washington going over It on his journey to 
 Fort le Boeuf and returning In safety. Every 
 path and hunter's pass along the Shenango and 
 the adjacent hills and valleys felt the soft tread 
 
Loffan Moves to the Ohio Country 57 
 
 of his cautious feet, while his hunting trips carried 
 him far a-field into the Scioto and Miami country. 
 Three years after he had pitched his camp at 
 Beaver Creek he moved his family farther down 
 the river to the mouth of Yellow Creek on the 
 north bank of the Ohio, three miles below where 
 Wellsville now stands. The town of Mingo Junc- 
 tion, twenty miles farther down the river, perpetu- 
 ates the name of his tribe and his memory on the 
 strength of Logan having been there for how long 
 or how short a period no one knows. The student 
 of Indian history and biography is hampered by 
 the fact that they had no written language of their 
 own except pictograph inscriptions, which are 
 occasionally found, and the meaning and import 
 of these is often uncertain. So they themselves 
 left no written records of great events or of the 
 prowess of their great men, heroes or heroines, 
 told from their own viewpoint of life and its in- 
 terests. And by a second important circumstance 
 that the Information we have and the records 
 which were made at or near the time the events 
 occurred are often conflicting and were In the case 
 of written accounts made by their common foes, 
 chiefly French and English, and colored by the 
 personal equation of the self-interest of traders 
 and petty ofllicers at a time when the chief concern 
 of the invaders of their lands and rights was to 
 
58 Logan the Mingo 
 
 deprive them of both and drive them out of the 
 country or failing In that to exterminate them out- 
 right. Volumes have been written by people of a 
 different race portraying and emphasizing the 
 treachery and savagery of the Indians, but the like 
 deeds of those who were confiscating and debauch- 
 ing their homes are scantily told, if at all, and 
 condoned, justified or dismissed on the question- 
 begging plea that they were savages, blood-thirsty 
 animals that could talk and nothing besides. 
 
 Brief reports by traders and missionaries of 
 the purchase of pelts and dressed skins indicate 
 that Logan still followed the pursuit of hunting 
 and of peacemaker pleading for justice, and con- 
 tending that the Indians were the rightful owners 
 of the lands north of the Ohio. He scorned ex- 
 tinction. But peace did not encircle his new home 
 now at Yellow Creek. Early the next spring 
 after his arrival, while some of his men were try- 
 ing to capture a horse that was tethered on their 
 ground In the neighborhood, two were shot down 
 by one Myers, a Virginia land-grabber. The 
 camp began to plan revenge, it Is said, and a 
 squaw, supposed to have been Logan's sister, gave 
 a hint to the band of outlaws to which Myers 
 belonged, who were lodged on the south side of 
 the river at the time under the commmand of the 
 unscrupulous land thief, Daniel Greathouse. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE MURDER OF LOGAN'S FAMILY 
 
 The following day was the thirtieth of April, 
 seventeen hundred and seventy-four. It was also 
 the day of the brutal murder of Logan's family. 
 He was away westward in Ohio on a hunting trip. 
 Greathouse invited the Indians of the camp to 
 Baker's tavern across the river to be his guests 
 for the day. They accepted the invitation, which 
 was outwardly friendly and apparently sincere. 
 The next day a party from the camp, — one re- 
 porter says eight, another nine, a third ten, and 
 Heckewelder and Dodridge say twelve — crossed 
 the river in their canoes to the south side of the 
 Ohio opposite the mouth of Yellow Creek to 
 make the friendly visit at Baker's, a rum-seller. 
 They left their guns in their tents as it was to be 
 a friendly visit. There were at least five men, 
 several women and a two-months-old child in the 
 party. The mother of the infant was Logan's 
 sister. 
 
 When they arrived the whites gave them rum. 
 59 
 
6o Logan the Mingo 
 
 Three of the men drank freely and became beastly 
 drunk. The others refused to drink, as it was a 
 custom among the Indians for one or more of a 
 party to remain sober. The sober Indians, one 
 of whom was Logan's brother, were then chal- 
 lenged to shoot at a mark, which was a common 
 sport or game among them. They all agreed and 
 the Indians shot first. As soon as they had 
 emptied their guns and were thus without weapons 
 or chance to defend themselves they were shot 
 down. One woman, the sister of Logan, tried to 
 escape by flight, but was also shot down. She 
 lived long enough, however, to beg mercy for 
 her little babe and told them it was one of their 
 kin. Its life was spared on that account. The 
 whites had men in the cabin prepared with toma- 
 hawks to kill the drunken Indians and they imme- 
 diately set upon them till not one was left alive. 
 Duvereux Smith, a British officer at Fort Pitt, in 
 a letter to Governor Dunmore of Virginia dated 
 June tenth, reported that nine Indians were killed 
 by Greathouse and his men at Baker's. In the 
 party so foully deceived and slaughtered were the 
 mother of Logan, his youngest living brother, 
 called John Petty, and his only surviving sister 
 with her two-months-old babe. In a note to Cap- 
 tain Cresap several months later he calls the babe 
 his cousin, which was the customary title of a 
 
The Murder of Logan's Family 6i 
 
 sister's child with the Indians. Not one of the 
 party escaped except the babe, whose life was 
 saved by the mother's plea of kinship. 
 
 From mighty wrongs to petty perfidy, 
 Have I not seen what human things can do. 
 
 Lord Byron 
 
 When Logan returned from the hunt and heard 
 of the atrocious deed, vengeance seized him. 
 Later he said, "Logan thought only of revenge; 
 Logan will not weep." And from that moment 
 his gospel read, "Vengeance belongeth unto me; 
 I will recompense, saith Logan." And action was 
 his Bible. 
 
 A short time before that fatal last day of April 
 a council of Chiefs had assembled and many of 
 them were in favor of war. In reply Logan 
 argued, "I admit that you have just cause of com- 
 plaint. But you must remember that you, too, 
 have sometimes done wrong. By war you can 
 only harass and distress the frontier settlements 
 for a time and then the Virginians will come like 
 the trees in the woods in number and drive you 
 from the good lands you possess, from the hunt- 
 ing grounds so dear to you." His counsel pre- 
 vailed as usual and the Chiefs decided against 
 war. Throughout the French and Indian war and 
 the conspiracy of Pontiac which followed so 
 
62 Logan the Mingo 
 
 closely, he remained in his cabin an advocate of 
 peace. But wanton killing of fellow human beings 
 is a return to savagery whether the color be red 
 or white and the treacherous slaughter of his 
 family without cause or provocation so far as he 
 could see or was personally concerned was too 
 much for his hot blood and natural instincts to 
 bear. He would not have been an Indian if he 
 had submitted without doing more than to make 
 complaint to the government which he had served 
 so long and well; nor would he have been human, 
 the great human that he was, if he had not re- 
 sented the atrocity with feelings of vengeance and 
 with the most effective weapons of punishment he 
 could use. At the time Heckewelder last visited 
 him he complained "against the English for im- 
 posing liquor upon the Indians; but otherwise 
 admired their ingenuity; spoke of gentlemen, but 
 observed the Indian unfortunately had but few of 
 them as their neighbors." From the friend of the 
 white man and advocate of peace he had always 
 been he was changed Into a fearless, fiendish foe. 
 Instead of remaining in his cabin he went to war, 
 not at the head of a great army of braves, but 
 almost alone and on his own account; instead of 
 making treaties he made history, on every page a 
 tragedy written in blood. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 VALUES PLACED ON HUMAN LIFE 
 
 It may soften the deep crimson color scheme 
 of the picture to recall some facts of history that 
 are not quite complimentary. The British Par- 
 liament passed an Act in 1774 which made the 
 Ohio River the southern and the Mississippi River 
 the western boundary of Canada without purchase 
 or payment. This territory was attached to Que- 
 bec by the Act and placed in charge of the 
 Virginians, whose Governor was Lord Dunmore. 
 England had at the time one hundred and fifty 
 capital offenses in her penal code, from stealing 
 a shilling, which at par equals about twenty-four 
 cents of our money, up or down as you choose to 
 call it, to the most heinous crimes, all punishable 
 by death. The "Ocean Hells" method, as they 
 were called, of punishment so fully portrayed in 
 Russel's "The Prison Ship" was about to be^ 
 adopted; it consisted of confining the hapless vic- 
 tims In stocks on board vessels specially con- 
 structed and sent out to sea, where many were 
 
 63 
 
64 Logan the Mingo 
 
 starved or literally flayed alive before they 
 reached their destination. In 1722 Massachusetts 
 increased the bounty paid for Indian scalps from 
 twelve pounds sterling each to one hundred 
 pounds. Pennsylvania had similar laws with a 
 graded system of bounties for scalps which ranged 
 from one hundred fifty Spanish silver dollars for 
 males above ten years of age and women slightly 
 less down to children of either sex at fifty and 
 thirty pounds each. As recent as February 19, 
 178 1, quoting from the Colonial Records of 
 Pennsylvania, "An order was drawn in favor of 
 Colonel Archibald Lochry, Lieutenant of the 
 County of Westmoreland, for the sum of 12 lbs, 
 los state money, equal to 2,500 dollars. Conti- 
 nental money, to be paid by him to Captain 
 Samuel Brady, as a reward for an Indian scalp, 
 agreeable to a late proclamation of this board." 
 The order was signed by his Excellency Joseph 
 Reed, President of the Executive Council. And 
 the Colonial Legislature had passed an "Act for 
 giving rewards for scalps" in 1745. 
 
 In 1777, only three years before the death of 
 Logan, the British Commander, Henry Hamilton, 
 at Detroit, made very tempting offers to the 
 Indians of rewards for the delivery to him of 
 American scalps and prisoners, who like the In- 
 dians were fighting for their rights and freedom. 
 
Values Placed on Human Life 65 
 
 He told them he preferred prisoners which he 
 called "live meat" to scalps and offered One Hun- 
 dred Dollars apiece for either. 
 
 The Indian's code was scalp for scalp and a 
 prisoner additional to replace every one, old or 
 young, lost by death or capture and for other 
 offenses tortures of the most savage and hideous 
 kind or death at the stake by burning. It is well, 
 too, to remember that it was but a short span of 
 less than two generations that separated Logan's 
 career from the days when witch torture and burn- 
 ing and other ghoulish atrocities were inflicted 
 upon innocent and harmless whites in the colonies 
 by people of their own color and blood on the 
 silly, savage, superstitious plea that the victims 
 did not believe what the persecutors professed to 
 believe. Beastly ferocity was not a monopoly 
 with the natives nor was it practiced by them 
 alone during any period since the advent of the 
 white man, whatever the country across the sea 
 he came from. Neither was barbaric torture and 
 butchery a monopoly of one race at any period 
 of Logan's life. The lower in civilization an in- 
 dividual or nation is and the lower her feeling for 
 human fellow beings descends, whatever the color, 
 the more bitter and brutal the hatred. 
 
 Half a dozen years before, while Logan still 
 lived at Reedsville, he was cheated by a tailor 
 
66 Logan the Mingo 
 
 who traded him bad wheat for good dressed deer- 
 skins. He made complaint and when Judge 
 Brown decided in his favor he replied, "Law 
 good, makes rogues pay." But when the law 
 failed to protect his family the savage nature 
 within was aroused and the old, old law of primi- 
 tive man, "Life for life, eye for eye, tooth for 
 tooth, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound 
 for wound, strife for strife," was the only law and 
 way to redress the wrongs he had suffered that 
 he knew or could invoke. He had not taken the 
 scalp or the life of a white man before the time 
 of the Yellow Creek tragedy when the unconquer- 
 able impulse to take life for life seized him. His 
 course reminds one of Prince Roland. Besides 
 this he had been taunted often by his fellow war- 
 riors and Chiefs for being a friend of the white 
 man and had borne it bravely. It is grossly unjust 
 and would falsify human nature to suppose that 
 Logan and the Red Men had no feelings of human 
 kindness in their bosoms; and it would falsify his- 
 tory to say they had no inhuman wrongs to incite 
 them to malicious revenge and that their savagery 
 was cold-blooded murder in which they took 
 fiendish delight. They were by nature lovers of 
 peace. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 PERSONAL TRAITS 
 
 Logan was now in the prime of life, a fine 
 specimen of robust manhood with a commanding 
 presence, dignified in bearing and brave as the 
 bravest of the brave. He was built In the style 
 of the primeval forest, six feet two or more, broad 
 shouldered, lithe of limb and alert and as soft 
 of tread as a tiger; he was self-rehant and straight 
 as an arrow. He Is described as handsome, with 
 more than usual raven-trailing locks and as hav- 
 ing jet-black eyes vigilant as the eyes of an eagle, 
 firm-set mouth and the kindly features of a child. 
 When he began the drink habit is not known. He 
 spoke eloquently and often against the bringing 
 and selling of rum to his people by the traders, 
 but confessed frankly to Heckewelder his own 
 fondness for it. His outburst of savagery and 
 thirst for revenge were not because he was an 
 Indian, but because he was human. Not a drop of 
 his blood was now running in the veins of any 
 human being, he said. But this was an extrava- 
 
 67 
 
68 Logan the Mingo 
 
 gance of speech that was very common among the 
 Indians and harmless, for they delighted in ex- 
 pletives and ornament of their speech as well as 
 of their faces and bodies. His oldest brother, 
 the father of Tod-kah-dohs, who six years later 
 took Logan's life, was still living and made his 
 home near Tyrone, Pennsylvania. He, too, re- 
 mained a firm friend of the white man, true to the 
 admonition of their father. During the Revolu- 
 tionary War he helped the colonist cause as a 
 scout and spy so loyally that his services were 
 called to the attention of General Washington, 
 from whom he received formal mention for the 
 aid he gave to the patriot cause. He lived to a 
 great age and died on the Cornplanter Reserva- 
 tion more than a quarter of a century after the 
 death of Logan. His youngest brother had died 
 at Shamokin before the father; one sister died 
 near Lancaster the year after he moved north 
 from Shamokin and seven years later another 
 sister was killed by the Paxton raiders on the Sus- 
 quehanna in seventeen hundred sixty-three. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 LOGAN TAKES REVENGE 
 
 When the refugees who fled from Yellow 
 Creek arrived at the Muskingum villages two 
 days after the event with the report of the mur- 
 der, the Mingoes, Delawares and Shawneese were 
 thrown into excitement but remained quiet to the 
 extent that they did not raise the hatchet at once. 
 Logan himself made a vow of vengeance on the 
 Long Knife as the Virginians were called and on 
 traders and settlers alike and said he would take 
 ten scalps for each one of his murdered kin. 
 Some of his camp fled down the Ohio in canoes 
 to their death. But his choice of travel was by 
 the land trails in preference to the exposure that 
 an open canoe offered on lake or river, though it 
 was not always the easier or quicker way. He 
 did not rally an army of warriors and lead them 
 against the foes, but set out on his own account 
 on foot by the most direct route to cut off the 
 traders at Canoe Bottom on the Hockhocking. 
 His course led westward through dense forests 
 
 69 
 
70 Logan the Mingo 
 
 and country already familiar to him along the 
 highlands and bottom trails of the Conotten and 
 Tuscarawas valleys, by Gnadenhiitten and the 
 flint quarries overlooking the lower Walhonding, 
 down the Muskingum and across to his destina- 
 tion. Chief Kiasutha reported to Fort Pitt on the 
 ninth of May that the Indians down the Ohio had 
 remained quiet and submitted the loss to the can- 
 dor and justice of the wise men of the whites. 
 Chief White Eyes reported to Captain Smith of 
 Fort Pitt that Logan aimed to cut off the traders, 
 but the Shavvneese took care of them, and he was 
 foiled in his first war of vengeance. Logan 
 stopped among his friends at Wakatomica, 
 ''Vomit Town," now Dresden, on the west bank 
 of the Muskingum, fourteen miles below Coshoc- 
 ton. 
 
 On the nineteenth of May, with a party of eight 
 chosen warriors who were afterwards joined by 
 four more, he set out a second time and went to 
 the Monongahela River country, which was 
 claimed by Virginia in the neighborhood of Ten 
 Mile, Dunkard and Muddy creeks. After wait- 
 ing and watching for two weeks his chance came, 
 on the sixth of June. A settler by the name of 
 Spicer, together with his wife and six children, 
 were killed and a boy nine years old named Wil- 
 liam and a girl aged eleven called Betsy were 
 
Logan Takes Revenge 71 
 
 taken prisoners. The girl was released, but the 
 boy was kept and grew up among the captors. 
 Two days later two men were killed in sight of a 
 fort on Dunbar Creek. By the twenty-second of 
 June, less than a month's time, he returned to 
 Wakatomica with sixteen scalps and two prison- 
 ers. He at once made himself as renowned in 
 war, as he called it, as he had been in peace and 
 his name struck terror whenever mentioned. 
 
 His rage had cooled some by this time, but the 
 anger of the tribes, especially the Shawneese, was 
 increasing. After several days' respite he started 
 on the war-path the third time with a party of 
 seven braves back to the Monongahela region 
 near where he thought the murderers of his 
 family lurked. On July twelfth Maj. William 
 Robinson with two other men were in a field oppo- 
 site the mouth of Simpson Creek pulling flax and 
 were fired on by Logan and his party. One of 
 the men by the name of Brown was killed and 
 the other two started to run away. Logan called 
 to them In English, "Stop, I won't hurt you." 
 *'Yes, you will," replied Robinson, and kept on 
 running. "No, I won't," said Logan, "but if you 
 don't stop, by . . . LU shoot you." Excited by 
 fear, Robinson kept on going, but stumbled over 
 a log and fell and was captured. It is not known 
 with certainty what became of the other com- 
 
72 Logan the Mingo 
 
 panlon. Logan made himself known to Robin- 
 son, showed friendliness towards him and told 
 him to be of good heart and go with them to their 
 camp. On the way to camp he told Robinson that 
 he would have to run the gauntlet; but he gave 
 him such complete Instruction and directions as 
 they traveled together that Robinson ran the 
 gauntlet safely and reached the stake without 
 harm. 
 
 When a prisoner was brought in he became the 
 property of the whole tribe or nation and the 
 Chiefs decided what was to be done with him. 
 They decided that his punishment should be tor- 
 ture and death. The former consisted usually of 
 flaying while bound, gashing with knives and prod- 
 ding or searing with fire brands. He was tied to 
 the stake at the appointed time to be tortured 
 in the usual way and burnt when Logan addressed 
 the council of assembled warriors with such 
 energy, Robinson said afterwards, that the saliva 
 foamed at his mouth. Hostile Chiefs spoke in 
 opposition, to which Logan replied and untied the 
 prisoner. He was fastened to the stake a second 
 time and after a parley was released by Logan. 
 For the third time the blood-thirsty council of 
 Chiefs prevailed and he was again bound to the 
 stake with his life in the balance to be weighed 
 by his captor's mercy and honor. But Logan's 
 
Logan Takes Revenge 73 
 
 fervent pleading and impassioned eloquence pre- 
 vailed in the end. He loosed the cords which 
 bound the prisoner to the stake, placed a belt of 
 wampum around him as a mark of adoption and 
 introduced a young warrior to him saying, "This 
 is your cousin; you are to go home with him and 
 he will take care of you." He kept faith and his 
 promise to the last syllable with the otherwise 
 helpless man. Like Massasoit, he regarded his 
 word a pledge which was sacred and could not be 
 violated. 
 
 Three days after Robinson had been adopted, 
 Logan came to him with a piece of paper and 
 asked him to write a note for him. Robinson 
 complied with the request and wrote the note with 
 suggestive ink made of gun-powder mixed with 
 water. Logan dictated the note and after re- 
 writing it several times it read as follows: 
 
 To Captain Cresap: 
 
 What did you kill my people on Yellow Creek 
 for? The White People killed my kin at Cone- 
 stoga a great while ago and I thought nothing of 
 that ; but you killed my Kin again on Yellow Creek 
 and took my cousin prisoner. Then I thought I 
 must kill too; and I have been three times to War 
 since ; but the Indians are not angry, only myself. 
 Captain John Logan. 
 
 July 21 day, 1774. 
 
74 Logan the Mingo 
 
 Logan had been wrongly informed or surmised 
 falsely and in either case probably never fully 
 believed otherwise than that Cresap killed his kin. 
 But it was later proved beyond cavil that Cresap 
 was at Wheeling on the day of the Yellow Creek 
 murder; that Cresap did kill two from Logan's 
 camp the next day as they were making their 
 escape down the Ohio River in a canoe opposite 
 Wheeling; also that Daniel Greathouse and party 
 were the real perpetrators of the crime and that 
 one of the party named Sappington killed Logan's 
 brother, John Petty. Captain Cresap was head 
 officer of the band of Virginians that was oper- 
 ating along the Ohio border with headquarters at 
 Wheeling. A detachment of about thirty led by 
 Greathouse as their commander had gone up the 
 river and were on the south side opposite Yellow 
 Creek at the time. Captain Cresap could not 
 therefore be held responsible for the deed, or if 
 he could be regarded in any degree responsible 
 it could be only indirectly so, as such detached 
 units were practically independent of the chief 
 officer. 
 
 The Goddess of Vengeance flew on swift wings. 
 With the note to Cresap in his belt, "savage cir- 
 cumstantial and circumstantial savage," as one 
 writer puts it, he went on the warpath again. 
 This time with a party of a few chosen braves he 
 
Logan Takes Revenge 75 
 
 set out on a longer journey to the Holston and 
 Clinch Rivers in the southwest corner of Virginia, 
 where it is said Captain Cresap made his home. 
 It was the long knife that had killed his family 
 and on them he turned loose his bitter hatred 
 and savage fury. The scalping party reached the 
 Holston River by the middle of September and 
 proceeded to further glut his thirst for revenge. 
 The note to Cresap was found tied to a club in 
 the house of John Roberts on Reedy Creek, a 
 branch of the Holston. With it on the floor were 
 found the bodies of the whole Roberts family, 
 who had been killed, except one young boy who 
 was carried off captive. Every circumstance in 
 the case pointed to Logan and his party as the 
 perpetrators of the ghastly deed. By the middle 
 of October the party had re-crossed the Ohio and 
 he brought back with him five scalps and Roberts* 
 little boy with two other prisoners. 
 
 During their absence the Delawares had been 
 driven from the Muskingum westward by a com- 
 pany of Virginians and were now located among 
 the Shawneese at old Chillicothe on the Scioto 
 River. The party went to their Delaware friends 
 at the new location by the Scioto. He had now 
 taken thirty scalps and prisoners as he had vowed 
 he would do five and a half months before. His 
 thirst for revenge was satisfied. Besides, the 
 
76 Logan the Mingo 
 
 tribes had united under the leadership of the 
 Shawneese with the noted Shawneese Chief Corn- 
 stalk as Captain in a desperate effort to destroy 
 the Long Knives and had just returned from a 
 decisive defeat at Point Pleasant. The spasm of 
 ferocious rage and murderous anger that had 
 changed him into a savage demon now left him 
 as suddenly as it had seized him. 
 
 At the treaty made with Boquet ten years be- 
 fore, Pennsylvania promised to pay for lands they 
 would purchase or otherwise wrest from the 
 Indians; but Virginia neither heeded nor re- 
 spected the treaty north of the Ohio. A land 
 company known as the Ohio Company, with the 
 approval of the Governor of Virginia and sup- 
 ported, as you will see, by the militia, continued 
 to locate lands as it was called, which in practice 
 resembled the gentlemen's agreement we hear 
 about in these days, only it was more open and 
 boldly defiant of law, justice and equity and meant 
 the appropriation or taking of the most fertile 
 and desirable lands from the Indians by persua- 
 sion, force, murder and even war when other 
 schemes failed. 
 
 Logan felt and suffered for his race. They 
 were treacherous and savage; but It is equally 
 true that they had been brutally treated and 
 partly made what they were by the avaricious 
 
Logan Takes Revenge 77 
 
 pale-face. The whites were obsessed with greed 
 and the idea that might makes right, and a heart- 
 less disregard of human life and suffering pre- 
 vailed. Faithful missionaries condoled and con- 
 soled them, traders and the officers of the 
 government were even buying their submission to 
 the loss of their hunting grounds and the outrages 
 inflicted upon them with costly presents and bar- 
 rels of rum. Still the relations between them had 
 become more strained from day to day for the 
 past five months and the situation and hatred 
 more intense. The Yellow Creek affair was not 
 forgotten on the one side and the greedy rush to 
 grab off the best and choicest possessions con- 
 tinued on the other. Foreigners were no longer 
 safe in their villages or secure while traveling 
 through their country, theirs, Logan insisted, by 
 birthright and by right of discovery, by proclama- 
 tion of the Great Father, king of England in the 
 Quebec Act, and by treaty agreements as well. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 DUNMORE'S WAR 
 
 The Ohio country was a seething pot of unrest 
 and the lives of both whites and Indians were in 
 jeopardy day and night. War was the answer by 
 Virginia. The conflict is known in the history 
 of the period as "Dunmore's War," but in the 
 earlier records it was sometimes called Logan's 
 War. The murder of his family and the toll in 
 human life he took in revenge brought it on 
 sooner than it would have otherwise come. 
 Whether the encounter would have lasted for 
 months or longer instead of a single day if Logan 
 and Chief Cornstalk had not taken a firm stand 
 against war and advised peace Instead, can only 
 be guessed. To cope with the situation Governor 
 Dunmore raised an army of about three thousand 
 troops and volunteers to check the uprising or 
 drive the Indians out of that section if necessary. 
 General Andrew Lewis was put In command of 
 one division of eleven hundred Virginians which 
 marched down the Kanawa River to Point Pleas- 
 
Dunmore's War 79 
 
 ant and encamped in the triangle formed by its 
 junction with the Ohio. Here they were surprised 
 and savagely attacked in the early morning of the 
 tenth of October by an equal number of Indians 
 led by Chief Cornstalk. After a full day of 
 fierce fighting to and fro and the loss of Col. 
 Charles Lewis, brother of the commander, Cols. 
 Fleming and Field and seventy-five officers and 
 men and one hundred forty wounded, the Indians 
 under the cover of night took their dead and 
 wounded with them, as their custom was, crossed 
 back over the Ohio and withdrew to their towns 
 on the Scioto. 
 
 Dunmore commanded the second division in 
 person by way of Mingo and the Ohio River and 
 up the Hockhocking. The two divisions were to 
 meet at Camp Charlotte, six miles east of their 
 villages, before making the attack. When Dun- 
 more arrived at the appointed place two days after 
 the Point Pleasant battle he learned that Lewis 
 was encamped only two miles below the villages 
 and, supported by his angry soldiers, was deter- 
 mined to make the attack alone. With difficulty 
 and threats of dismissing him from his command 
 and sending him home under guard, Dunmore's 
 firmness won the day and the attack was not 
 made. 
 
 Logan arrived from the Holston raid at the 
 
8o Logan the Mingo 
 
 critical moment. The defeated and foiled war- 
 riors had returned from the battle and the Chiefs 
 were assembled in council. From the reports the 
 sentinels were bringing in Dunmore and Lewis 
 would soon join their forces. Chief Cornstalk 
 had advised them not to go to war at a meeting in 
 council before he led them into the battle and now 
 counseled with them to make peace. Logan 
 argued for peace and pled with them not to con- 
 tinue the war. The Council wisely decided 
 against war and a deputation of Chiefs was sent 
 to Dunmore to sue for peace. The Commander 
 agreed to a conference and runners were sent out 
 to invite all the Chiefs to attend it at Camp Char- 
 lotte. 
 
 Logan refused to go. But the occasion and the 
 moment had come for the supreme climax in his 
 famous career. On the Pickaway plains, six miles 
 south of Circleville and two and a half miles east 
 of the Scioto River, on the bank of Congo Creek 
 stood an elm tree and in its hoary magnificence it 
 is still standing with a diameter of seven feet, a 
 height of seventy-nine feet and a spread of its 
 branches of one hundred and fifty feet — a 
 primeval giant full of years and fame. It was 
 intended, no doubt, to be a wise stroke of 
 diplomacy that led Dunmore to select Col. John 
 Gibson to go as a special messenger to invite and 
 
Dunmore's War 8 1 
 
 bring Logan to the appointed conference; for 
 Gibson was the alleged father of the two-months- 
 old child of Logan's sister, whose life was spared 
 at Yellow Creek. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 LOGAN'S FAMOUS SPEECH 
 
 Logan refused to go with Gibson to the Con- 
 ference; but he proposed that they, he and Gibson, 
 take a walk to the woods and talk the matter over. 
 At length they sat down on a log under the elm 
 tree, whose fame is still growing and which is 
 known the world over to-day as Logan's Elm. 
 It was here that he made that famous speech with 
 Gibson as his only known listener and audience — 
 one of the finest specimens of heart-throbbing elo- 
 quence in the English language if not in any lan- 
 guage. Thus it happened that a log in the 
 primeval forest on the Pickaway plains became 
 the throne of justice from which Logan passed 
 sentence on his accusers and on the common enemy 
 who had inflicted on his people about every form 
 of punishment and evil known in the category of 
 pain and crime. 
 
 Gibson took down the speech as nearly word 
 for word as was possible and read it to the Con- 
 ference the next day at Camp Chillicothe. 
 
 82 
 
Logan* s Famous Speech 83 
 
 Thomas Jefferson says in his Notes on Virginia 
 that Gibson attested its genuineness by a sworn 
 affidavit that It is substantially the same as related 
 in the Notes, as follows : 
 
 I appeal to any white man to say if ever he 
 entered Logan's cabin hungry and I gave him not 
 meat; if ever he came cold or naked and I gave 
 him not clothing. 
 
 During the course of the last long and bloody 
 war Logan remained In his tent an advocate for 
 peace. Nay, such was my love for the whites, 
 that those of my own country pointed at me as 
 they passed by and said, "Logan is the friend of 
 white men." I had even thought to live with, 
 you but for the Injuries of one man. Colonel 
 Cresap the last spring, in cold blood, and unpro- 
 voked, cut off all the relatives of Logan; not 
 sparing even my women and children. There 
 runs not a drop of my blood In the veins of any 
 human creature. This called on me for revenge. 
 I have sought it. I have killed many. I have 
 fully glutted my vengeance. For my country, I 
 rejoice at the beams of peace. Yet, do not harbor 
 the thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan 
 never felt fear. He will not turn on his heel to 
 save his life. Who Is there to mourn for Logan? 
 Not one. 
 
 The following wording of the speech became 
 popular, but the variation Is In the choice of words 
 and the flow of the sentences. The difference is 
 
84 Logan the Mingo 
 
 so slight, just enough to amount to a proof of the 
 genuineness of the above: 
 
 I appeal to any white man to say that he ever 
 entered Logan's cabin, but I gave him meat; that 
 he ever came naked, but I clothed him. 
 
 In the course of the last war, Logan remained 
 in his cabin an advocate of peace. I had such 
 affection for the white people that I was pointed 
 at by the rest of my nation. I should have ever 
 lived with them had it not been for Colonel 
 Cresap who last year cut off, in cold blood, all 
 the relations of Logan, not sparing my women 
 and children. There runs not a drop of my blood 
 in the veins of any human creature. This called 
 upon me for revenge. I have sought it. I have 
 killed many, and fully glutted my revenge. I am 
 glad there is a prospect of peace on account of the 
 nation; but I beg you will not entertain a thought 
 that anything I have said proceeds from fear. 
 Logan disdains the thought. He will not turn 
 on his heel to save his life. Who is there to 
 mourn for Logan? No one. 
 
 This simple, dispassionate utterance and cry in 
 words blood-winged and eloquent gushed up from 
 the heart of his race and made the name of Logan 
 immortal. It is the key to his real greatness of 
 soul. If this speech, at once bold, lofty and sub- 
 lime, had not been faithfully recorded and pre- 
 served his oblivion might have been as complete 
 and as much to be regretted as the silence under 
 
LogavLS Famous Speech 85 
 
 which the names of many able Chiefs and Wise 
 Men have been smothered and lost to history. 
 Jefferson justly challenges Cicero, Demosthenes, 
 European and American statesmen to surpass it. 
 The appeal is based on facts and on the lofty 
 sentiments of a common humanity. Its tribute 
 to justice and the brotherhood of man is real and 
 ferv^ent. Like Patrick Henry before the Virginia 
 Convention and Lincoln's immortal speech at 
 Gettysburg, there is an undertone of hope in it 
 and a permeating note of sadness. It was recited 
 in the schools throughout the colonies and new 
 nation and became a model of eloquence for 
 American schoolboys. It was copied in England 
 and translated into French and German and other 
 European literatures as a specimen of classic 
 oratory as lasting as literature and as imperish- 
 able as the name Indian; and the hearts of two 
 continents vibrated in rhythmic cadence and sym- 
 pathy to the beat of Logan's throbbing pulse. 
 
 The Point Pleasant battle had decided the con- 
 flict and peace was declared at the Conference at 
 Camp Charlotte. The provisions of the treaty 
 stated that the Indians were to return all white 
 prisoners, horses and property In their possession; 
 that they agree never to make war again upon the 
 Virginia border and not to cross the Ohio River 
 into Virginia for any purpose except to trade. 
 
86 Logan the Mingo 
 
 These pledges were to be secured by hostages who 
 were to be taken to Pittsburgh and held there 
 until the Virginians were satisfied that the prom- 
 ises would be fulfilled. As usual, neither party- 
 kept either the letter or the spirit of the agree- 
 ment. The Mingoes held aloof because they did 
 not believe that a prospect of peace was yet in 
 sight. But the treaty was signed and was a fitting 
 cHmax to Logan's life and to what proved to be 
 the last great clash in the Ohio country between 
 the Indians and the English, unless one chooses to 
 call Tecumseh's Confederacy of the eighteen- 
 twelve period an Indian war. But strictly speak- 
 ing, that war was as much British as it was Indian. 
 The Chiefs returned from the Conference to their 
 towns and on the last day of October Dunmore 
 started back with his army to Williamsburg, the 
 capital of the Virginia colony; they carried with 
 them Logan's speech, which became the topic of 
 talk on everybody's tongue. In their eyes he was 
 the hero of the day. Schoolcraft says: "The im- 
 pression was widespread and effect electric. A 
 heart capable of expressing such sentiments was 
 worthy to beat in the noblest bosom of the human 
 race." 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 YEARS OF UNCERTAINTY 
 
 There were many depredations and crimes 
 committed on each side, red and white, within 
 the compass of the thirty-odd years of Logan's 
 active period and great conferences held that can- 
 not be told or described here — clashes that were 
 prodigal of human life and property and accom- 
 panied by daring exploits, suffering and torture. 
 Events that are not in some vital way connected 
 with his personal conduct, public or private, and 
 such incidents as did not influence the course he 
 was following in his attitude towards his fellow- 
 men and the government have been purposely 
 omitted for what seems a good and sufficient rea- 
 son. They would carry the simple story of his 
 life too far out into the history of the stirring 
 times in which he lived and into regions too re- 
 mote from the scenes of his activities. Some of 
 the events and exploits are highly important In 
 themselves and In relation to the larger scope of 
 history and thrill with Interest and excitement; 
 
 87 
 
88 Logan the Mingo 
 
 for Logan lived in the fresh growing morning of 
 American history. If he had been able to write 
 the English language as well and plainly as he 
 spoke it and even no better, and had left notes or 
 a diary of his travels, transactions and quiet vic- 
 tories, the story of his life would, no doubt, be 
 longer and the role he played could be more 
 graphically told. 
 
 Doubtless there are humorous episodes that 
 provoked merriment and laughable situations to 
 free himself from, for he did not want in the 
 faculty that perceives the ludicrous. But they 
 were not preserved with enough completeness or 
 reliability of the traditions to warrant repetition. 
 He took life in earnest and its experiences were 
 too serious and real for jest or ridicule. 
 
 In four and a half years he moved half as many 
 hundred miles westward as the airplane flies and 
 had not found a spot that promised to be secure 
 or permanent as a home. The defeat and total 
 collapse of Pontiac's Conspiracy five years before 
 he arrived on the Allegheny left turmoil and 
 ruined villages in the wake. The survivors of the 
 lost cause In western Pennsylvania and the adjoin- 
 ing region in Ohio withdrew to the middle and 
 western parts of what is now the Buckeye State, 
 where they set to work to recruit their depleted 
 ranks and rally their spirits. Here lived a motley 
 
Years of Uncertainty 89 
 
 population side by side, Mingoes, Miamis, Dela- 
 wares, Shawneese, Ottawas, Twigtwees, Wyan- 
 dots, and remnants and refugees of other tribes. 
 These were favorite hunting grounds teeming 
 with fish and game and had been the dweUing 
 place of successive nations and tribes for cen- 
 turies, as is proved by the numerous village sites, 
 mounds, effigies, forts and ruins which still dot 
 the valleys and hilltops. 
 
 But now this favorite refuge and land of plenty 
 was thrown into alarm and uncertainty by the 
 defeat of Cornstalk and his chosen army and the 
 treaty they were forced to accept. It was among 
 this medley of tribes and remnants that Logan 
 was to live and once more try to set up his ideal 
 democracy that would include both races where 
 they might live together in peace and safety — a 
 truly American ideal. He saw the Constitution 
 framed which guarantees the rights and liberties 
 of his dream, but did not live long enough to see 
 it adopted and put to work in shaping the republic 
 of which he was a part by sentiment and lifelong 
 service. 
 
 The frontier line at this time ran from Lake 
 Erie on the north down across eastern Ohio, Vir- 
 ginia, Kentucky to Tennessee and was firmly and 
 surely pushing toward the setting sun with slaugh- 
 ter and blood in its sweep. On the line were the 
 
90 Logan the Mingo 
 
 brave pioneers and the daring ranger, scout and 
 Indian fighter all in one, Samuel Brady in western 
 Pennsylvania, Simon Kenton in Ohio and Daniel 
 Boone in Kentucky and Tennessee was waiting 
 for David Crockett to be born. The daring deeds 
 and noble achievements of these heroic men have 
 been already written and preserved; comrades in 
 purpose and bravery and each defending a section 
 of the long stretch of frontier. But the name of 
 Kenton is the only one of the group that is 
 directly associated with Logan; and his rescue 
 from a mob of blood-thirsty Chiefs by the peace- 
 maker Sachem was as brave and timely as it was 
 humane and daring. 
 
 Logan faced the facts squarely. But it would 
 not give due credit to his intelligence and usual 
 good judgment to say he did not begin to see and 
 realize that the vision of peace he had and 
 thought fair and proper was not hkely to come 
 true, at least not soon. With the aid and coopera- 
 tion of powerful Chiefs he had on different 
 occasions failed to keep his own wild, treacher- 
 ously savage people from making war, breaking 
 treaties and committing frequent outrages, and 
 he had not restrained himself from rash slaughter 
 of unprotected whites. Sincere and complete 
 surrender of all the tribes to some one or to any 
 
Years of Uncertainty 91 
 
 responsible authority was as chimerical as It was 
 impossible. They were not fit for such organiza- 
 tion or able to live in it, and peace was not pos- 
 sible on any other terms; and his dream did not 
 provide for complete and unconditional submis- 
 sion. 
 
 His cabin at Old Chilllcothe, now Westfall, on 
 the banks of the peaceful Scioto, looked towards 
 the rising sun, the beautiful and fertile Pickaway 
 plains and the yet-to-be-memorable Elm tree. But 
 he did not tarry there long. They were dislodged 
 from the Muskingum valley and the treaty just 
 made with Dunmore was about to push them out 
 of the lower Scioto towards the northwest. He 
 moved to Pluggy's town, a village named after 
 Pluggy, a Chief of the Mohawks, eighteen miles 
 north of the present site of Columbus. It was on 
 a summer day, the twenty-fifth of July of the fol- 
 lowing year, that Captain Wood and an interpre- 
 ter were on their way to invite the tribes to a con- 
 ference at Pittsburgh and came upon Logan and 
 several other Indians who were under the influ- 
 ence of liquor. Wood and his companion were 
 at the mercy of the savages, who were flushed 
 with rum and hatred. Logan Interceded In their 
 behalf with the assuring words, "You shall not be 
 hurt," and they were not molested. 
 
92 Logan the Mingo 
 
 The tribes and remnants had been reduced In 
 numbers and were restless. They had been 
 smothering and covering up their hatred as only 
 Indians know how to do, but it was not abated. 
 The English were equally uneasy, for the beacon- 
 light had swung from the Old North Church 
 tower and blood had flowed on Lexington Com- 
 mon. The year the war of the American Revolu- 
 tion began Logan apologized for the conduct of 
 his people, but remained neutral and pleaded for 
 peace. He said, "We hear bad news. Some of 
 us are constantly threatened. We are informed 
 that a great reward is offered to any person who 
 will take or entice either of us to Pittsburgh, 
 where we are to be hung up like dogs by the Long 
 Knife. This being true, how can we think of 
 what is good? That it is true, we have no doubt." 
 
 He attended a meeting of the tribes twelve 
 months later and again counseled for peace as 
 usual and went farther up the Scioto into the 
 Wyandot country. The "Aged Indian" of Mrs. 
 Hemans was probably Logan. If he alone was 
 not the hero of this touching, sad song, the fol- 
 lowing lines give a true and real picture of his 
 care-worn and grief-broken spirit: — 
 
 Warriors ! my noon of life is past. 
 The brightness of my spirit flown; 
 I crouch before the wintry blast; 
 
Years of Uncertainty 93 
 
 Amidst my tribe I dwell alone; 
 The heroes of my youth are fled, 
 They rest among the warrior dead. 
 
 They were yielding to the inexorable. Their 
 fate had been foreshadowed and their destiny 
 determined and written when the Caucasian first 
 arrived on the fair and inviting shores of the 
 western world. Such has been the fate of other 
 primitive races through the course of human his- 
 tory. If their traditions contained stories of 
 other aboriginal peoples who successfully opposed 
 and scorned the advance of civilization or of new 
 ideals of life they did not recite them to strangers 
 who came to hve among them or to conquer them, 
 and did not heed the warning and handwriting on 
 the wall. The law of the survival of the fittest is 
 written in blood. Yet it is remarkable that the 
 ideal of a democracy should emanate from the 
 brain of an Indian and that its fundamental idea, 
 — "that all men are created equal and endowed by 
 their Creator with certain unalienable rights; 
 that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit 
 of happiness," — ^became the basic principle of the 
 Declaration of American Independence. 
 
 Bereft of kin, Logan wandered among the 
 tribes a broken man. According to the tradition 
 already alluded to, in July of seventeen hundred 
 seventy-eight the aged Outalissi, "desolate and 
 
94 Lo^an the Mingo 
 
 famished poor," stole back to Wyoming on the 
 Susquehanna to clasp in a last embrace the boy, 
 "It is my own," now grown to brawny manhood, 
 whom he saved from an uncertain and perhaps 
 barbaric fate fifteen years before. It was on the 
 eve of the Wyoming Massacre of July third, 
 seventeen hundred seventy-eight, when he arrived, 
 just in time to sound the alarm of the impending 
 doom: 
 
 The Mammoth comes — the foe — the monster 
 
 Brandt 
 With all his howling desolating band. 
 
 Gainst Brandt himself I went to battle forth: 
 Accursed Brandt, he left of all my tribe 
 Nor man, nor child, nor thing of living birth: 
 No, not the dog that watched my household 
 
 hearth. 
 Escaped that night of blood upon our plains; 
 All perished — I alone am left on earth 
 To whom nor relative nor blood remains. 
 No — not a kindred drop that runs in human veins. 
 
 Logan made his famous speech four years be- 
 fore the massacre at Wyoming. Campbell's 
 poems were published in 1809, after the speech 
 had become known in England and the truthful- 
 ness of the tradition of this visit is not only pos- 
 
Years of Uncertainty 95 
 
 sible but very highly probable. It was the custom 
 grown sacred through centuries of usage to visit 
 the burial places of their kin at certain seasons 
 and If far away at longer Intervals. Moreover, 
 the poet was a contemporary of Thomas Jeffer- 
 son, who said confidently that Logan was the hero 
 of the romance. Both the thought and the lan- 
 guage put Into the mouth of Outallssi on the 
 occasion betray the source of the poet's inspira- 
 tion. 
 
 In the autumn of this year of seventy-eight, 
 Simon Kenton, the brave scout and companion of 
 Daniel Boone, wa's caught stealing horses, if one 
 could call it stealing, as he was taking from hos- 
 tile Indians only such horses as they had stolen 
 from the frontiersmen. He was condemned for 
 the deed by a council of Chiefs, forced to run the 
 gauntlet and was tied to the stake. The infamous 
 renegade Simon GIrty released him. He was tried 
 again and condemned, but this time he was de- 
 serted by the turncoat GIrty and left to his fate. 
 The prisoner was then lodged with Logan for 
 safe keeping until he would be led away to tor- 
 ture. "These chaps seem very angry with you," 
 said Logan, "but be strong. I am a great Chief. 
 They talk of taking you to Sandusky and burning 
 you there. I will send messengers to speak good 
 
g6 Logan the Mingo 
 
 for you.'' He sent two messengers to Sandusky 
 and held the angry Indians in check while the 
 runners made the journey, and with great difficulty 
 got Kenton released. He was taken to Detroit 
 and held a prisoner till he managed to escape in 
 June of the next year and return to his home, 
 which was then in Kentucky. 
 
 The following year he adopted a white woman 
 into his family as his sister, Heckewelder says, to 
 take the place of the sister who was killed at 
 Yellow Creek five years before. During the re- 
 maining year of his life he made his home with 
 the remnant of the band of Mingoes at Seneca on 
 the Sandusky River. He continued to be friendly 
 towards the English, notwithstanding his roving 
 from place to place and indulging too freely in 
 strong drink. In his disappointment and distress 
 he turned to rum for comfort as many vigorous 
 men have done since his day. The uncertainty 
 and unrest that belong to a period of bitter 
 hatred, strife and warfare did not change his pur- 
 pose of maintaining a strict neutrality towards 
 the tribes nor modify the inborn principle and 
 standard of right and his love of peace and justice 
 for all, friend and foe. The loss of his kin he 
 had treated as a personal or individual grievance 
 and with a few chosen companions, a mere hand- 
 ful, he had taken personal revenge. He was not 
 
Years of Uncertainty 97 
 
 a Chief who delighted to lead hosts forth in 
 battle, but a wise Sachem who strove to guide and 
 govern his people and who toiled unceasingly to 
 lead and protect them. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 FAVORS THE BRITISH CAUSE— 
 A CONFESSION 
 
 England had now been at war with the 
 American colonies for four years. Whether it 
 was on account of his former allegiance to the 
 Great Father and his appointment to office as his 
 father's successor at Shamokin, or because the 
 hated Virginians stood in his mind and by his way 
 of reckoning for all Americans, cannot be decided 
 after so long a lapse of time with no record to 
 show his feelings in the matter. But Logan came 
 under the influence of the Shawneese, who were 
 avowed and resolute enemies of the Virginians, 
 and allied himself actively on the side of the 
 British the last year of his life. However true 
 It may be, it is said he led a scouting party back 
 to the Holston River, the alleged home of his 
 accused and hated personal enemy, in seventy-nine 
 and brought out a number of prisoners. 
 
 The next year at the age of fifty-five he joined 
 a force that was sent from Detroit down into 
 
 98 
 
Favors the British Cause — a Confession 99 
 
 Kentucky under the command of Captain Henry 
 Bird. This little army of raiders was made up 
 of Canadian volunteers, some regulars of the 
 British army and Indians who sympathized with 
 the British cause in the Revolutionary War, which 
 was still in progress with the issue undecided and 
 the odds in favor of the British. The Settlements 
 at Ruddell's and Martin's stations were taken and 
 many prisoners were brought back across the 
 Ohio river. Logan chatted freely with the unfor- 
 tunate captives on the way. Among the prisoners 
 was John Dunkin. He and Logan became friends 
 on the journey and it was to Dunkin that he re- 
 vealed the Inner conflict and contradictory work- 
 ings of his troubled conscience, brave heart and 
 thoroughly human nature. He said to Dunkin, 
 '*I know that I have two souls, the one good, and 
 the other bad. When the good has the ascendant 
 I am kind and humane. When the bad soul rules 
 I am perfectly savage and delight in nothing but 
 blood and carnage." 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE END 
 
 After he returned from the Kentucky raid he 
 went to a council of Chiefs at Detroit in autumn. 
 He became melancholy at times in later years and 
 as the end of days drew near sometimes delirious. 
 During the progress of the conference Logan in a 
 passion, probably crazed by drink, struck his wife 
 and felled her by what seemed at first a fatal 
 blow. He fled from her relatives and took the 
 well-worn trail leading towards his home on the 
 Sandusky. He was overtaken by a band of 
 Indians with their women and children at a noted 
 camping place near Brownsville, one writer says. 
 His nephew, Tod-kah-dohs, was one of the party. 
 It is almost certain that Logan was mistaken and 
 judged wrongly when he suspected them of pur- 
 suing him to punish him for striking his wife. He 
 shouted defiantly that he would scalp the whole 
 party. His nephew knew well his alertness and 
 that the only escape was to strike first; and as 
 Logan was leaping from his horse Tod-kah-dohs 
 
 100 
 
.OGAN MONUMENT, AUBURN, NEW YORK 
 
The End loi 
 
 shot him. The next morning some Wyandots 
 went out a distance of two miles and brought in 
 the body and buried it. 
 
 According to another account of his death 
 which is more frequently repeated, he was killed 
 on the way while making the same journey from 
 Detroit to the upper Sandusky. He had a quarrel 
 with his nephew and while he was sitting by his 
 camp fire with his elbows on his knees and his face 
 between his hands in deep meditation, Tod-kah- 
 dohs stole up behind him and tomahawked him. 
 Whichever may have been the exact manner of 
 his death, on Tod-kah-dohs rests the charge and 
 crime of Logan's death. Both the exact date and 
 place are lost to history. And there in the silent 
 autumn woods on the shore of Lake Erie the 
 darkness closed around him and the primeval 
 forests which he loved so well began to sing 
 requiems over the lonely spot. 
 
 / 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 TRIBUTES— IN SONG AND STORY 
 
 Thus passed Logan. His passions were naked 
 and furious when fully aroused, but his sorrow 
 was deep and real. His character was unique and 
 survived as no mean benefaction to the future to 
 become the com^mon possession of mankind. 
 
 A soul that pity touched, but never shook; 
 Trained from his tree-rocked cradle to his bier 
 The fierce extreme of good and ill to brook 
 Impassive — fearing but the shame of fear^ — 
 A stoic of the woods — a man without a tear. 
 Yet deem not goodness on the savage stock 
 Of Outalissi's heart disdained to grow. 
 
 Joseph Dodridge dramatized him in a four-act 
 piece which was very popular in the thirties and 
 forties, fifty years after his death, and his name 
 and fame were echoed in musical comedy and cur- 
 rent literature and sung in such tributes as Can- 
 ning's "The Shades of Logan." In fiction, as 
 Ellis' "Logan, the Mingo," written for children. 
 
Tributes — in Son^ and Story 103 
 
 where the author gives free rein to the imagina- 
 tion, he is eulogized as the man who "Spoke with 
 a single tongue," — brave and honest and as fleet 
 as a deer. Whether we meet him in history, 
 official records, in poetry or fiction or in the plain 
 annals and traditions of every-day life he is sin- 
 cere and trustworthy and the brave champion of 
 personal freedom, right and justice — the Patriot 
 and true American. 
 
 I shrink from the task of recording and verify- 
 ing the origin of the names of counties, towns and 
 villages; of streets and mills; of creeks, fords and 
 ports, the hills, rocks and rills that bear the name 
 Logan, many of which were named after him and 
 in his honor. No other Indian called forth so 
 much verse and eulogy and left a name and fame 
 impressed on so many nations as Logan. 
 
 In eighteen hundred fifty-two, almost three 
 quarters of a century after his death, a rustic 
 monument was set up on a mound at the apex of 
 Fort Hill cemetery. Auburn, New York, where 
 tradition says he was born. On it is inscribed his 
 own words, the sad and heart-torn cry, "who is 
 THERE TO MOURN FOR LOGAN?" Posterity has 
 been tardy in erecting memorials to mark sites 
 and scenes associated with his life and places 
 made historic by his deeds. But not more so per- 
 haps than it has been in commemorating the 
 
104 Logan the Mingo 
 
 heroism and suffering of other martyrs to the 
 cause of freedom of those days who were of our 
 own blood and kin. 
 
 On the second of October nineteen hundred 
 twelve the Elm tree, known as Logan's Elm, 
 hoary with its ten score and more years, together 
 with about five acres of ground surrounding it, 
 situated six miles south of Circleville and two and 
 a half miles east of the Scioto River, became the 
 property of the Ohio Archaeological and Histori- 
 cal Society to be preserved in perpetuity as a 
 public park. A granite monument was erected a 
 few rods south of the tree with inscriptions which 
 give the history of Maj. John Boggs who built a 
 cabin on the spot in seventeen hundred ninety- 
 eight; of his son and of his grandson, John Boggs, 
 Jr., who erected the monument. On one side is 
 the following record: — 
 
 Under the spreading branches of 
 a magnificent Elm tree near by is 
 where Logan, a Mingo Chief, 
 made his celebrated speech, and 
 where Lord Dunmore concluded 
 his treaty with the Indians in 1774, 
 thereby opened this County for the 
 settlement of our fathers. 
 
 As to the place where the Dunmore treaty was 
 actually signed, official reports and history agree 
 
Tributes — in Song and Story 105 
 
 that it was done at Camp Charlotte which was a 
 few miles east of this spot. 'An epitaph for the 
 occasion and worthy of the plain, celebrated 
 Mingo reads as follows : — 
 
 Logan, to thy memory here 
 
 White men do this tablet rear; 
 
 On its front we grave thy name 
 
 In our hearts shall live thy fame. 
 
 While Niagara's thunders roar 
 
 Or Erie's surges lash the shore; 
 
 While onward broad Ohio glides 
 
 And seaward roll her Indian tides 
 
 So long their memory, who did give 
 
 These floods their sounding names shall live. 
 
 While time, in kindness, hurries 
 
 The gory axe and warrior's bow. 
 
 O justice, faithful to thy trust. 
 
 Record the virtues of the just. 
 
 In weighing human conduct and estimating 
 character, of an individual, of a group of men or 
 of a nation, the kind and the magnitude of the 
 temptations he meets or has thrust upon him count 
 as well as his mental endowment, moral standard 
 and social aptitude. And down the long per- 
 spective of history comes the impartial verdict 
 that to spirits that exulted in the fact that they 
 were the first owners of the lands and all the mate- 
 rial sources of a satisfied existence which they 
 were fighting and dying to protect; to human be- 
 
io6 Logan the Mingo 
 
 ings that were born free and loved their freedom 
 next to Hfe itself; and to a proud race that scorned 
 slavery and the thought of submission and extinc- 
 tion — the havoc forced upon the Indians was 
 galling and cruelly unjust. 
 
 His consistent life and steadfast purpose won 
 for Logan the world's admiration and praise in 
 spite of the revenge and savagery of one-half year 
 and the intemperance of his last years. His char- 
 acter embodied the best traditions and highest 
 ideals of the proud, care-free and restraint-free 
 North American Indian of the early days before 
 they deteriorated into a state of relentless sav- 
 agery and revenge. He was frankly honest, 
 modest, generous and faithful to a trust and was 
 ''never surpassed by any of his nation for mag- 
 nanimity in war and greatness of soul in peace." 
 One law of his life was to do as you would be 
 done by. His manner was dignified and manly 
 and in none of his recorded utterances can the 
 language of abuse, railery or contempt be found. 
 Neither did he ever wear a petticoat like a squaw, 
 the humiliating sign and punishment of cowardice. 
 The better qualities of his character and deeds of 
 his life challenge the esteem of mankind and stand 
 out as the sure marks of a superior nature whose 
 sincerity and humanity were shown by the prac- 
 
Tributes — in Song and Story 107 
 
 tice of virtues which no one need fear or blush 
 to imitate. 
 
 His eventful life fell in the border-conflict 
 period of Indian and Anglo-Saxon history — bor- 
 der in a much deeper and broader meaning than 
 geographical boundaries, the edicts of Kings or 
 treaty agreements. It was the meeting of two 
 states of society and the dividing Hne between two 
 races whose stages of social organization were 
 separated by a thousand years or more and whose 
 modes of living were widely different. 
 
 History has not preserved a better type and 
 higher product of the Indian race than Logan. 
 But he was also a prophecy of the new civiliza- 
 tion that was to follow; he was a natural man, 
 democratic and American. Brandt, Red Jacket, 
 Pontiac, Cornstalk, Tecumseh and many others 
 were famous Chiefs of whose prowess and great- 
 ness the Indian could proudly and justly boast. 
 But Logan was both revered and feared; first 
 feared and then revered; and his name shines 
 from the zenith of the history of the North 
 American Indian as the friend of the white man 
 and the most renowned individual of his once 
 numerous race. 
 
 What Lord Dufferin wrote of Christopher 
 Columbus, the explorer, as recently as eighteen 
 
io8 Logan the Mingo 
 
 hundred ninety-two may be also said of Logan 
 the Indian, "If fame is an enviable thing, there 
 is no man's fame more to be envied than his; for 
 never has fame been better deserved, so widely 
 acknowledged, or more innocently acquired." 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF LOGAN 
 LITERATURE 
 
 Pennsylvania Provincial Council Minutes. 
 
 Historical Collections of Pennsylvania. 
 
 History of Northumberland County, Pa. 
 
 History of Mifflin County, Pa. 
 
 History of Huntingdon County, Pa. 
 
 History of Western Pennsylvania — A Gentle- 
 man of the Bar. 
 
 The Frontier Forts of Pennsylvania. 
 
 Historic Memoirs of New York. 
 
 History of Auburn, New York. 
 
 Hand Book of Fort Hill Cemetery. 
 
 Historical Collections of Ohio — Howe. 
 
 Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society 
 Publications. 
 
 Hand Book of American Indians — Bureau of 
 Ethnology, D. C. 
 
 Notes on Virginia — Thomas Jefferson. 
 
 The Olden Time, Vol. I and II— Craig. 
 
 Border Fights and Fighters — Cyrus Townsend 
 Brady. 
 
 109 
 
no Logan the Mingo 
 
 History of the Moravian Indians — Loskiel. 
 
 Life of David Zeisberger — Schweinits. 
 
 History of Indians of North America — Hecke- 
 welder. 
 
 History of New York Iroquois — Beauchamp. 
 
 Iroquois or Bright Side of Indian Character — 
 Minnie Myrtle. 
 
 Post's Journals, I and II — Christian Frederick 
 Post. 
 
 Indian Biography — Drake. 
 
 Indian Biography — Thatcher. 
 
 Tah-gah-jute or Logan and Cresap — Brantz 
 Mayer. 
 
 Logan, the Last of the Race of Shikellamy — 
 Dr. Joseph Dodridge. 
 
 Logan, the Mingo — Ellis. 
 
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 ANAS OF 
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