Newsgroups: freenet.shrine.songs
From: aa300 (Jerry Murphy)
Subject: Who Will Mourn for Logan?
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 90 15:40:03 EST


WHO IS THERE TO MOURN FOR LOGAN?

On April 22, 1749, Talgayeeta, better known as John Logan to the white men in
the area, was made Mingo Chief of the Cayuga Indians at Shamokin, PA. He made
his home in western Pennsylvania a safe haven for all people, white or red. He
was always the peacemaker, never entering into the atrocities blamed on either
side except as a man of peace. He was widely known and respected through all
levels of government in the Colonies and in the Iroquois League, as well as
throughout the Indian Nations of Ohio and other nearby states.  His wife and
children caught smallpox from the whites, none of them survived but Logan.
Still, he remained a peacemaker.

Twenty-five years later, while Chief Logan and his nephew were on a hunting
trip, white surveyors under the direction of Michael Cresap held a party in
honor of the family of Logan, following which they murdered them and mutilated
their bodies. The dead included his father, his sister, his brother, his
brother-in-law, and several of his friends and neighbors.  In his grief, Logan
swore revenge and retaliation.

His retaliation was swift and sure, and finally led the white rulers to seek
peace. The Governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore, summoned all the local Indian
leaders to a council. Logan refused to come, sending instead this message which
has made his name famous throughout not only Ohio, but in world capitals.
Logan's headquarters were dominated by a giant Elm tree, under which he composed
this reply to Lord Dunmore.  The reply was presented by an interpreter, John
Gibson, on October 20, 1774.

"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
the white men.' I had even thought to live with you, but for the injuries of one
man, Colonel Cresap.  He last spring, in cold blood and unprovoked, 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
any thought that mine is the joy of fear.  Logan has never felt fear.  He will
not turn on his heels to save his life.  Who is there to mourn for Logan?
Not one."

A monument commemorating this event is at Logan Elm Park, 6 miles south of
Circleville, OH, erected in 1919.  Another monument to Logan is in Fort Hill
Cemetery, Auburn, NY.

Logan died in 1780, his elm tree died in 1964.  

Who is there to mourn for Logan?

Gerald E. Murphy
Copyright (c) 1988
