Quick Facts
Biography
Logan the Orator (c. 1723?–1780) was a Cayuga orator and war leader born of one of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. After his 1760s move to the Ohio Country, he became affiliated with the Mingo, a tribe formed from Seneca, Cayuga, Lenape and other remnant peoples. He took revenge for family members killed by Virginian Long knives in 1774 in what is known as the Yellow Creek Massacre. His actions against settlers on the frontier helped spark Dunmore's War later that year.
Logan became known for a speech, later known as Logan's Lament, which he reportedly delivered after the war. Scholars dispute important details about Logan, including his original name and whether the words of Logan's Lament were his.
Identity debate
Scholars agree that Logan Elrod was a son of Shikellamy, an important diplomat for the Iroquois Confederacy. But, as historian Anthony F. C. Wallace has written, "Which of Shikellamy's sons was Logan the orator has been a matter of dispute." Logan the orator has been variously identified as Tah-gah-jute, Tachnechdorus (also spelled "Tachnedorus" and "Taghneghdoarus"), Soyechtowa, Tocanioadorogon, the "Great Mingo", James Logan, and John Logan.
The name "Tah-gah-jute" was popularized in an 1851 book by Brantz Mayer entitled Tah-gah-jute: or Logan and Cresap. However, historian Francis Jennings wrote that Mayer's book was "erroneous from the first word of the title." He identified Logan as James Logan, also known as Soyechtowa and Tocanioadorogon. Historians who agree that Logan the orator was not named "Tah-gah-jute" sometimes identify him as Tachnechdorus. But Jennings identifies Tachnechdorus as Logan the orator's older brother.
Logan's father Shikellamy, who was Oneida, worked closely with Pennsylvania official James Logan to maintain the Covenant Chain relationship with the colony of Pennsylvania. Following a prevailing Native American practice, the young man who would become Logan the Mingo took the name "James Logan" out of admiration for his father's friend.
With the disruption of warfare, disease, and encroachment, some Seneca and Cayuga among the Iroquois migrated to the Ohio Country, as did Lenape. Joining together in a process of ethnogenesis, they became known as the Mingo tribe. Logan the Mingo is usually identified as a Mingo "chief", but historian Richard White has written that "He was not a chief. Kayashuta and White Mingo were the Mingo chiefs. Logan was merely a war leader...." The Iroquois and other Native American tribes tended to have peace chiefs and war chiefs, or leaders. Like his father, Logan generally maintained friendly relationships with white settlers who were moving from eastern Pennsylvania and Virginia into the Ohio Country: the region that is now Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, and western Pennsylvania.
Biography
Early life and family
Yellow Creek Massacre
Logan’s friendly relations with white settlers changed after the Yellow Creek Massacre of April 30, 1774. A group of Virginia Long knives led by Daniel Greathouse murdered a number of Mingo, among them Logan’s brother (commonly known as John Petty) and at least two other close female relatives, one of them pregnant and caring for an infant daughter. Her children's father was John Gibson, a prominent trader in the region. These Mingo had been living near the mouth of Yellow Creek, and had been lured to the cabin of Joshua Baker, a settler and rum trader who lived across the Ohio River from their village. The Mingo in Baker’s cabin were all murdered, except for the infant mixed-race child, who was spared with the intention of giving her to her father. At least two canoes were dispatched from the Yellow Creek village to aid their members, but they were repelled by Greathouse’s men concealed along the river. In all, approximately a dozen Mingo were murdered in the cabin and on the river. Logan was not present in the area when the massacre took place, and was summoned to return by runners.
Logan's revenge
Influential tribal chiefs in the region, such as Cornstalk (Shawnee), White Eyes (Lenape), and Guyasuta (Seneca/Mingo), attempted to negotiate a peaceful resolution lest the incident develop into a larger war, but by Native American custom Logan had the right to retaliate for the murders. Several parties of mixed Mingo and Shawnee warriors soon struck the frontier, including one led by Logan. They attacked settlers in several frontier regions, both killing and taking captives. One known as the Spicer Massacre in Greene County, Pennsylvania. The Royal Governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore, responded by launching an expedition against the Mingo and Shawnee, in the conflict known as Dunmore’s War.
Logan's Lament
Logan was not at the Battle of Point Pleasant (10 October 1774), the only major battle of Dunmore's War. Following the battle, Dunmore's army marched into the Ohio Country and compelled the Ohio Indians to agree to a peace treaty.
According to tradition, Logan refused to attend the negotiations and instead made a speech that became legendary:
I appeal to any white man to say, if ever he entered Logan's cabin hungry, and he gave him not meat; if ever he came cold and naked, and he clothed him not. During the course of the last long and bloody war, Logan remained idle in his cabin, an advocate for peace. Such was my love for the whites, that my countrymen pointed as they passed, and said, Logan is the friend of the white men. I have even thought to live with you but for the injuries of one man. Col. Cresap, the last spring, in cold blood, and unprovoked, murdered all the relations of Logan, not sparing even my women and children. There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any living creature. This has 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. But do not harbor a 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 speech was printed in colonial newspapers, and in 1782 Thomas Jefferson reprinted it in his book Notes on the State of Virginia. The American elm tree in Pickaway County, Ohio under which Logan was said to have given the speech became known as the Logan Elm. it grew to great size before dying in 1964.
Logan's Letter
"To Captain Cressap - What did you kill my people on Yellow Creek for. The white People killed my kin at Coneestoga a great while ago, & 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 time[s to war since but] the Indians is not Angry only myself."
-- Captain Joh[n Logan] Direct same to Lee Sultzman, as re-directed by West Virginia Archives and History,
At present-day Hancock County, West Virginia.Later life and death
The remainder of Logan's life is shrouded in obscurity. Along with many other Ohio natives, he participated in the American Revolutionary War on the British side against the Americans, hoping to repel the settlers from this territory. He was murdered during the war near Detroit in 1780 by a nephew.
Clipper ship Logan
Legacy
Numerous places carry Logan's name, including:
- Logansport, Indiana
- Logan, Ohio
- Logan County, West Virginia (None of the 9 other "Logan" counties in the USA is named for the Mingo leader.)
- Logan, West Virginia
- Chief Logan State Park, West Virginia
- Logan Elm State Memorial, Ohio
- Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn, New York, an area traditional to the Cayugas, has a large monument to him.
- Logan and Michael Cresap resolved their differences after Cresap proved that he was innocent of the massacre of Logan's people. Cresap named a son after Logan and, since then, three generations of Cresap male descendants have been named Logan. The tradition has been continued in the 21st century.
- Logan Honors Program - at Fort Steuben Scout Reservation in Freeport, Ohio, managed by the Ohio River Valley Council of the Boy Scouts of America.