History of Belmont and Jefferson Counties, Ohio, and incidentially historical collection pertaining to border warfare and the early settlement of the adjacent portion of the Ohio Valley, Part 27

Author: Caldwell, J. A. (John Alexander) 1n; Newton, J. H., ed; Ohio Genealogical Society. 1n
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Wheeling, W. Va. : Historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 728

USA > Ohio > Jefferson County > History of Belmont and Jefferson Counties, Ohio, and incidentially historical collection pertaining to border warfare and the early settlement of the adjacent portion of the Ohio Valley > Part 27
USA > Ohio > Belmont County > History of Belmont and Jefferson Counties, Ohio, and incidentially historical collection pertaining to border warfare and the early settlement of the adjacent portion of the Ohio Valley > Part 27

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LOGAN'S LATER CAREER.

We have devoted considerable research to Logan's character, and his career after the close of the Dunmore campaign. After this time he is said to have resided with the Shawanese at old Chillicothe, on the banks of the Scioto river, fifteen miles from the present city of Chillicothe, and, we believe, near the spot where his celebrated speech was delivered.

After the breaking out of the revolution he went to Detroit, and, still entertaining his deep antipathy against the "Long Knives," he there entered the service of the British along with the many tribes and nations who entered into the alliance against the Americans. He is said to have captured and de- livered many prisoners at Detroit and posts in Canada.

In the story of the life of Simon Kenton, we have another instance of Logan's kindness to prisoners. Kenton was a cap- tive in the hands of the savages, and was being conveyed by some young warriors through their towns to Sandusky, where he was condemned to be burned. At a large village at the head of the Scioto, Kenton first beheld the celebrated Mingo chief. Logan walked gravely up to the place where Kenton stood, and the following short conversation ensued: " Well, young man, these young men seem very mad at you ?" " Yes, sir, they certainly are." "Well, don't be disheartened ; I am a great chief; you are to go to Sandusky-they speak of burning you there-but I will send two runners to-morrow to speak good for you." The narrative of Kenton then proceeds : "Lo- gan's form was striking and manly-his countenance calm and noble, and he spoke the English language with fluency and correctness." Kenton's spirits instantly rose at the address of the benevolent chief, and he once more looked upon himself as providentially rescued from the stake.

On the following morning two runners were dispatched to Sandusky, as the chief had promised, and until their return Kenton was kindly treated, being permitted to spend much of his time with Logan, who conversed with him freely and in the most friendly manner.

Logan's effort to change the decision of the savages failed, he keenly felt the disappointment and exhibited no little cmotion at the fate of the prisoner whose cause he had espoused. Ken- ton's life was finally saved by the interposition of a British Indian agent from Detroit, but doubtless Logan's effort had its proportion of influence in the matter.

A writer in the American Pioncer, of October, 1842, describes the capture of some families at Riddle's station, Kentucky, in 1778, who were carried to Canada by a party of Indians, where they were detained as prisoners until the close of the revolu- tionary war. The writer continues :

" The celebrated Logan was with this party ; my brother-in- law, Captain John Dunkin, an intelligent man, had several

* Affidavit of John Gibson, Appendix to Jefferson's Notes. 10-B. & J. COS.

HISTORY OF BELMONT AND JEFFERSON COUNTIES, OHIO.

conversations with him on the trip. He said Logan spoke both English and French ; he told Captain Dunkin that he knew he had two souls, the one good and the other bad ; when the good soul had the ascendant, he was kind and humane; and when the bad soul ruled, he was perfectly savage, and delighted in nothing but blood and carnage."

Logan, as a man, though savage as he was, possessed some of the noblest traits of humanity, and who, unquestionably, was endowed with natural abilities of the highest order. In stature he was several inches over six feet high ; straight as an arrow, lithe, athletic and symmetrical in frame ; firm, resolute and commanding in features. His Indian name, was Tah-gah-jute, signifying " short dress."

Several accounts have been published respecting his later habits and final fate.

Heckwelder, who resided on the Big Beaver river, "in the neighborhood of Cuscuskee," knew Logan personally, and has said of him, "I thought him a man of superior talents than Indians generally were." Referring to a conversation which he had had with Logan, before the murders at Captina and Yel- low creeks, Heckwelder said: "The subject turning on vice and immorality, he confessed his too great share of this, espec- ially his fondness for liquor. He exclaimed against the white people for imposing liquors on the Indians; he otherwise ad- mired their ingenuity; spoke of gentlemen, but observed the Indians had but few of these as their neighbors, etc. He spoke of his friendship to the white people; wished always to be a neighbor to them; intended to settle on the Ohio river below the Big Beaver; was, to the best of my recollection, then en- camped at the mouth of the Big Beaver; urged me to pay him a visit, etc. In April, 1773, while on my passage down the Ohio, for Muskingum, I called at Logan's settlement, where I received every civility I could expect from such of the family as were at home."

Heckwelder says further: "Indian reports concerning Logan after the death of his family, ran to this: That he exerted himself during the Shawanese war, then so called, to take all the revenge he could, declaring he had lost all confidence in the white people. At the time of the negotiation, he declared his reluctance in laying down the hatchet, not having, in his opinion, yet taken ample satisfaction; yet for the sake of the nation, he would do it. His expressions from time to time de- noted a deep melancholy. Lifc, he said, had become a torment to him; he knew no more what pleasure was; he thought it had been better had he never existed, etc. Report further states that he became in some measure delirious; declared he would kill himself; went to Detroit; drank very freely, and did not seem to care what he did, nor what became of himself."

What Heckwelder has given as "Indian reports," concern- ing Logan's "reluctance in laying down the hatchet," and his revengeful spirit after the peace had been established, is contra- dicted by all who knew Logan.

LOGAN'S DEATH.

In regard to the circumstances attending Logan's death, a number of contradictory statements have been published. In addition to the statement that he died of disease at old Chilli- cothe, on the banks of the Scioto river, the story of his being killed between there and Detroit is told in various ways. The account that Captain Dunkin, above mentioned, gave of his death was that "Logan's brother-in-law killed him as they re- turned home from a council held at Detroit, on account of some misusage he had given his sister at the council."

It is recorded in Howe's "Ohio Collections" that "he was murdered between Detroit and his own home, in October, 1781. He was sitting at the time, with his blanket over his head, before a camp fire, his elbows resting upon his knees, when an Indian, who had taken some offense, stole behind him and buried his hatchet in his brains."

Another statement has been extensively published, claiming to be well authenticated, which reads in these words:

"Some time after this war (the Shawnees') Logan, who had married a Shawanee woman, removed to near Detroit. A habit of intemperance-that curse of the red man-grew upon him, and he became quarrelsome, frequently giving way to ungov- ernable fits of passion. He realized his degredation and to a missionary spoke feelingly of the curse which had come upon him, declaring that he felt as if he was upon the brink of eternal fire. In one of his frenzies he struck his wife down, in the presence of her tribe. Fearing he had killed her, and knowing the Indian law of retributive justice, he fled from the camp. While on his flight he met, according to tradition, his

wife's nephew and some other Indians, and thinking that this relative was about to avenge the murder, he prepared to defend himself, declaring he would kill all who opposed him. The nephew, in self-defense,'shot him dead as he was dismounting from his horse."

The name of this Indian is said to have been Tod-hah-dohs. The following account of his death came into the possession of the eminent historian, Lyman C. Draper, secretary of the Wis- consin Historical Society, and by him was furnished to Mr. Brantz Mayer, the author of an interesting little work entitled "Logan and Cresap." In his communication to Mayer upon the subject, Draper says:

"In August, 1781, Maj. Charles Cracraft, of Washington county, Pa., and twelve men, descending the Ohio, as a part of Gen. G. R. Clarke's intended expedition against Detroit, were intercepted near the mouth of the Great Miami, by a large body of Indians, and made prisoners. Maj. Cracraft's son, Wni. Cra- craft, has furnished me his recollections of his father's relation of his captivity and events connected therewith, and among them the following about Logan, which he communicated to me under date of October 1st, 1853, by which you will perceive I did not possess it when you prepared and published your original work on Logan and Cresap in 1851. I will give it in the plain narrative communicated to me, and if you have occa- sion to use it you must put it in shape :

"'I think in my last letter to you mention was made of an acquaintance had by my father, at the time of his captivity with Alexander Macomb, a resident near Detroit, and father of the late Gen. Alexander Macomb, of the United States army' [where (Mr. Cracraft mentions elsewhere) his father was ever kindly treated and furnished with reading matter to while away the tedium of his captivity, having given his parole not to run away, nor pass more than three miles beyond the limits of Detroit]. 'At that time a certain William McMillen, who had been taken prisoner by the celebrated Indian chief and warrior, Logan, was in the cmploy of Mr. Macomb, working on his farm, and there my father became acquainted with McMil- len, and learned from him much of Logan's life and history. It appears that Logan and McMillen had hunted together before the war, and McMillen was made prisoner by Logan and his party ncar Clover Lick, on the Greenbrier fork of the Great Kanawha river, Virginia, and taken to Detroit and retained there, and with the privilege of personal freedom by remaining in or near the post of Detroit. It appears that McMillen was a favorite of Logan, for the latter called often to see him when returning to Detroit with scalps and prisoners.

"'I will give you as near as possible the relation given by my father as to Logan's death. Many years before my father's decease, I had read Jefferson's account of Logan with much in- terest, which accounts for my recollection of the narrative given me by my father. And now to the narrative:

"'It appears that Logan in one of his trips to Detroit, and I might say, his last one, with scalps and prisoners, after having made disposition of them according to the then British regula- tions, got into an Indian drunken frolic and became so trouble- some that Captain Bawbee, the commissary of the Indian de- partment, kicked him out of the store-house. Logan took it in high dudgeon, and the next day he went to Mr. Macomb's resi- dence to hunt up William McMillen; and, after meeting him and passing the usual salutations, Logan said: 'Bill, I want to have a talk with you, and wish you to meet me at the Spring Wells, below Detroit, signifying the time by pointing to where the sun would be in the horizon. McMillen acceded to his re- quest and at the appointed time met Logan at the Spring Wells.

"'Logan commenced by giving an account of the abuse he had received from the British at the hands of Bawbee. 'Bill,' said he, addressing McMillen, 'Why, Bawbee kicked me out of his house and called me a dog! Bill, I won't fight for the British any more; they have treated me very bad. Now, Bill, take this tomahawk, and tell how many prisoners, and how many scalps I have taken from the Big Knives [the Vir- ginians. ] for the British.' Logan had made a notch-record on one side of his hatchet handle for each prisoner taken, and on the other side for each scalp. McMillen said he counted them, and they exceeded seventy. 'Now, Bill,' continued Logan, ' I would go back to the Big Knives, if I thought they would not kill me, and would kill and take as many of the British as I have done of the Big Knives; but I dare not go. Bill, I can kill as many bucks as any Indian on the Scioto river; I will go home, and hunt deer, raccoon and beaver.' And, from the nar- ration, it seems that Logan soon left Detroit for his home on the heads of the Scioto; and meeting some of his nation on his

HISTORY OF BELMONT AND JEFFERSON COUNTIES, OHIO.

journey homeward, who had some rum, he became boozy again, and then pursued his way to his camp, and in passing the Indian wigwam of the squaw whom he claimed for his cousin, he asked her for something to eat. She said they had nothing. Logan called her a liar, and took his wiping-stiek or ramrod and gave her a severe whipping, ealling her a lazy bitch, then mounted his horse and made off. The husband of the squaw coming home, and finding his wife still crying, and learning the cause of her trouble, and the course that Logan had gone, and knowing that he would have to make a cireuitous route to avoid a swamp, took a nearer way, and got ahead of Logan, and lay in ambush until he came near, and then shot. At the crack of the rifle, Logan sprang from his horse, with his gun in one hand, while with the other he struck himself on the breast, at the same time advancing a few steps towards the place where the concealed Indian lay, exclaiming, 'I am a man !' and fell to the ground to rise no more. Thus ended the life of Logan, the once mighty Mingo chief and warrior, whose name and acts had carried dismay and terror to the frontier settlers.' "

DISCUSSION AND DOCUMENTS IN REFERENCE TO THE SPEECH OF LOGAN-THE MURDER OF HIS FAMILY, AND THE ALLEGED CON- NECTION OF CRESAP.

After the lapse of many years, the speech of Logan, as has been fully stated, became more and more widely circulated; it was extensively read and admired, and became a theme of recitation in public exhibitions along with the most eloquent passages of ancient and modern poets and orators. At length in 1797, Luther Martin, a very able lawyer, a son-in-law of Michael Cresap, in obedience to the injunctions of a relative as he alleged, and perhaps in some measure under the influence of political feelings, addressed the following letter to Mr. Fen- nel, a public declaimer, through the Philadelphia Gazette edited by William Cobbet.

"MR. FENNEL-By the late Philadelphia papers I observe, Sir, that in your 'readings and recitations, moral, critical, and entertaining,' among your other selections you have introduced 'The Story of Logan, the Mingo Chief.' In doing this, I am sat- isfied you were not actuated by a desire to wound the feelings of a respectable family in the United States, or by a wish to give a greater publicity to a groundless calumny.

"You found that story and speech in Jefferson's Notes on Virginia; you found it related with such an air of authenticity, that it cannot be surprising that you should not suspect it to be a fiction.

"But, sir, philosophers are pretty much the same, from old Shandy, who in support of a system sacrificed his aunt Dinah, to De Warville and Condorcet, who for the same purpose would have sacrificed a world.

"Mr. Jefferson is a philosopher; he too had his hypothesis to establish, or, what is inuch the same thing, he had the hypoth- esis of Buffon to overthrow.

"When we see him employed in weighing the rats and mice of the two worlds, to prove that those of the new are not ex- ceeded by those of the old-when, to establish that the body of the American savage is not inferior in form or in vigor to the body of an European, we find him examining minutely every part of their frame, and hear him declare that, though the wrist and the hand of the former are smaller than those parts of the latter, yet, 'les organes de la generation ne font plus foibles ou plus petits ,'-and that he hath not only as many hairs on his body, but that the same parts which are productive of hair in the one, if left to themselves, are equally productive of hair in the other :- when we see him so zealous to establish an equali- ty in such trifles, and to prove the body of his savage to be formed on the same modula with the 'Homo sapiens Europeus,' how much more solicitous may we suppose him to have been to prove that the mind of this savage was also formed on the same modula.

"Than the man whom he has calumniated, he could scarcely have selected a finer example to establish the position that the human raee in the western world are not belittled in body or mind; but that unfortunately that man was not born in America.

"For the want of better materials he was obliged to make use of such as came to his hands; and we may reasonably conclude, whatever story or speech he could pick up calculated to destroy the hypothesis of Buffon, or to establish his own, especially in so important a point, instead of being scrutinized minntely, would be welcomed with avidity. And great and respectable as the authority of Mr. Jefferson may be thought, or may be in reality, I have no hesitation to declare, that from an examina-

tion of the subject, I am convinced the charge exhibited by him against Colonel Cresap is not founded in truth; and also, that no such specimen of Indian oratory was ever exhibited.

"That some of Logan's family were killed by the Americans I doubt not; whether they fell the victims of justice, of mistake, or of cruelty, rests with those by whom they fell. But in their death Colonel Cresap, or any of his family, had no share. And in support of this assertion I am ready to enter the lists with the author of the Notes on Virginia.

"No man, who really knew the late Colonel Cresap, could have believed the tale. He was too brave to be perfidious or cruel. He was a man of undaunted resolution; a man of whom it might be said, with as much propriety as I believe was ever said of man, 'that he knew not fear.'

"Courage, hospitality, candor and sineerity were the promi- nent features of his character. These also are the leading traits in his descendants.

"Immediately after the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle he establish- ed himself at Old Town, on the north branch of the Potomac, only fifteen miles this side of Fort Cumberland, and one hun- dred and forty miles to the westward of Baltimore town. What must have been the situation of himself and his family on so distant a frontier, during the war which terminated in the year seventeen hundred and sixty-three, and during the troubles which preceded that war, may be easily conceived by those who have any knowledge whatever of the situation, at that time of the settlements of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Vir- ginia.

" After the defeat of General Braddock, a company raised and commanded by his eldest son, Thomas Cresap, and in a great measure supplied with arms and other necessaries by the Col- onel himself, attacked the invading savages, and drove them over the mountains; but this victory was embittered by the loss of their gallant leader; he and one of the Indian chiefs fell by wounds mutually inflicted, and expired together. Soon after this event, Colonel Cresap, and his then eldest son, raised another company, at their own expense, crossed the mountains, and defeated the Indians with considerable slaughter. After the inhabitants of that part of the country where he resided had generally fled from their houses, and retired to the neighbor- hood of Conococheaque, he remained with his family at his house near Old Town, which he had surrounded with a stock- ade, for twelve months or upwards. When at last he was induced to withdraw from so dangerous a situation, removing with his books and papers, accompanied by a few of the former inhabitants, who had been in his neighborhood collecting their cattle, and were driving them down the country, he was attack- ed by the Indians who lay in ambush for him, and four of his party were killed on the spot; the Indians were, however, re- pulsed with considerable loss, and he had the good fortune to escape unhurt.

"That Colonel Cresap and his family were frequently and actively engaged in the conflicts which took place between us and the Indians, is well known. That some of the Indians have fallen by their hands, is not denied; but those were not in the number of our friends.

"To the Indians who were attached to our cause his doors were ever open. At his house was their frequent rendezvous; there often they met messengers from the then governors of Virginia and Maryland; there they were often furnished with arms, with ammunition, and with provisions, and not un- frequently out of his own stores, and at his own expense.

" It was to those savages, who were employed by the French nation (before it became our very good friend and ally) to ravage their frontiers and butcher the peaceful inhabitants, that he and his family were terrible. And to those they were terrible, though not " as the fires of heaven."

" But, perhaps, it was from the facts which I have here stated, that Mr. Jefferson considered himself authorized to say : "Colonel Cresap was infamous for the many murders he had conimitted on the much injured Indians." And lest some future philosopher, in some future Notes on Virginia, might be tempt- ed to call him also " infamous for his many murders of the much injured Britons," may, perhaps, have been his motive for flying with such precipitation from the seat of his government, not many years since, when the British army invaded that state.

"As to Logan; lightly would I tread over the grave even of the untutored savage ; but justice obliges me to say, I am well assured that the Logan of the wilderness-the real Logan of nature-had but little, if any more likeness to the fictitious Logan of Jefferson's Notes, than the brutified Caffre of Africa to the enlightened philosopher of Monticello.

HISTORY OF BELMONT AND JEFFERSON COUNTIES, OHIO.

" In what wilderness Mr. Jefferson culled this fair flower of aboriginal eloquence ; whether he has preserved it in the same state in which he found it; or, by transplanting it into a more genial soil, and exposing it to a kinder sun, he has given it the embellishments of cultivation, I know not.

"There are many philosophers so very fond of representing savage nature in the most amiable and most exalted point of view, that we feel ourselves less surprised when we see them become savages themselves. To some one of this class of phil- osophers, I doubt not it owes its existence.

"Yet, but for Jefferson, " it would have breathed its poisons in the desert air." Whatever was the soil in which it first sprung up, it soon would have withered and died unnoticed or forgotten, had not he preserved it in his collection. From thence the authors of the Annual Register have given their readers a drawing as large as nature. The Rev. Mr. Morse, in his Geography, and Mr. Lendrum, in his History of the Amer- ican Revolution, have followed their example ; and you, sir, are now increasing its celebrity by exhibiting it to thronging spectators, with all its coloring, retouched and heightened by the flowing pencil of a master.

"Do you ask me how I am interested in this subject ? I answer, the daughter of Michael Cresap was the mother of my children. I am influenced also by another motive not less powerful. My much lamented and worthy relation, who died on the expedition against the western insurgents, bequeathed to me as a sacred trust, what, had he lived, he intended to have performed himself, to rescue his family from this unmerited opprobrium.

" Do you ask me, why have I so long neglected this duty ? I answer, because for a long time past every feeling of my mind has been too much engrossed by the solicitude, though an un- availing solicitude, of preserving the valuable life of one of that family, to attend to any objects which could bear a postpone- ment. The shock is now past. I begin to recall my scattered thoughts to other subjects ; and finding the story of Logan in the catalogue of your readings, it instantly brought me to the recollection of a duty, which I have hastened thus far to fulfill.

"And now, sir, to conclude, I arrogate to myself no authority of prohibiting the story and speech of Logan from being con- tinued in your readings and recitations; this I submit to your sentiments of propricty and justice; but from those sentiments I certainly have a right to expect, that, on its conclusion, you will inform your hearers, it is at best but the ingenious fiction of some philosophie brain ; and when hereafter you oblige an audience with that story and speech, that with the poison you will dispense the antidote, and by reading to them this letter, also oblige your very humble servant,

" LUTHER MARTIN."

" March 29, 1797."

To Mr. James Fennel.

Mr. Jefferson finding his veracity and integrity thus im- peached, addressed letters to various persons, who might be supposed to have some knowledge of the matter, and received a mass of testimony which is published in an appendix to a later edition of his " Notes on Virginia."

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History of Belmont and Jefferson Counties, Ohio, and incidentially historical collection pertaining to border warfare and the early settlement of the adjacent portion of the Ohio Valley, Part 27

Author: Caldwell, J. A. (John Alexander) 1n; Newton, J. H., ed; Ohio Genealogical Society. 1n Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Wheeling, W. Va. : Historical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 728

Author: Caldwell, J. A. (John Alexander) 1n; Newton, J. H., ed; Ohio Genealogical Society. 1n
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Wheeling, W. Va. : Historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 728