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60 lines
3.0 KiB
Plaintext
Newsgroups: freenet.shrine.songs
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From: aa300 (Jerry Murphy)
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Subject: Who Will Mourn for Logan?
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Date: Wed, 24 Jan 90 15:40:03 EST
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WHO IS THERE TO MOURN FOR LOGAN?
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On April 22, 1749, Talgayeeta, better known as John Logan to the white men in
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the area, was made Mingo Chief of the Cayuga Indians at Shamokin, PA. He made
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his home in western Pennsylvania a safe haven for all people, white or red. He
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was always the peacemaker, never entering into the atrocities blamed on either
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side except as a man of peace. He was widely known and respected through all
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levels of government in the Colonies and in the Iroquois League, as well as
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throughout the Indian Nations of Ohio and other nearby states. His wife and
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children caught smallpox from the whites, none of them survived but Logan.
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Still, he remained a peacemaker.
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Twenty-five years later, while Chief Logan and his nephew were on a hunting
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trip, white surveyors under the direction of Michael Cresap held a party in
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honor of the family of Logan, following which they murdered them and mutilated
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their bodies. The dead included his father, his sister, his brother, his
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brother-in-law, and several of his friends and neighbors. In his grief, Logan
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swore revenge and retaliation.
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His retaliation was swift and sure, and finally led the white rulers to seek
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peace. The Governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore, summoned all the local Indian
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leaders to a council. Logan refused to come, sending instead this message which
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has made his name famous throughout not only Ohio, but in world capitals.
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Logan's headquarters were dominated by a giant Elm tree, under which he composed
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this reply to Lord Dunmore. The reply was presented by an interpreter, John
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Gibson, on October 20, 1774.
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"I appeal to any white man to say if ever he entered Logan's cabin hungry and I
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gave him not meat; if ever he came cold or naked and I gave him not clothing."
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"During the course of the last long and bloody war, Logan remained in his tent,
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an advocate for peace. Nay, such was my love for the whites that those of my
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own country pointed at me as they passed by and said, 'Logan is the friend of
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the white men.' I had even thought to live with you, but for the injuries of one
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man, Colonel Cresap. He last spring, in cold blood and unprovoked, cut off all
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the relatives of Logan; not sparing even my women and children. There runs not
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a drop of my blood in the veins of any human creature. This called on me for
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revenge. I have sought it. I have killed many. I have fully glutted my
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vengeance. For my country I rejoice at the beams of peace. Yet do not harbor
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any thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan has never felt fear. He will
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not turn on his heels to save his life. Who is there to mourn for Logan?
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Not one."
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A monument commemorating this event is at Logan Elm Park, 6 miles south of
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Circleville, OH, erected in 1919. Another monument to Logan is in Fort Hill
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Cemetery, Auburn, NY.
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Logan died in 1780, his elm tree died in 1964.
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Who is there to mourn for Logan?
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Gerald E. Murphy
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Copyright (c) 1988
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