Logstown

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The village of Logstown (also Logg's Town) was a significant Native American settlement in Western Pennsylvania in the years leading to the French and Indian War.

The original village was settled by Shawnees, possibly as early as 1725, on low-lying land on the north bank of the Ohio River, near present-day Ambridge, Pennsylvania, Beaver County, Pennsylvania^[1]. In the rich soil by the riverside, the Shawnees cultivated maize.

Logstown and other Native American villages, most circa 1750s

As part of their effort to claim the Ohio Valley, around 1747, the French built about 30 log cabins, some with stone chimneys, on a plateau above the original Logstown village^[1]. The French turned over the cabins to the Native Americans. Only 18 miles downriver from present-day Pittsburgh, Logstown predated the French fort there, Fort Duquesne, by at least seven years. Logstown, therefore, became an important trade and council site for the French and Native Americans, as well as, ironically, the British.

In 1747, the Iroquois send two Oneida chiefs as emissaries to live in Logstown: Tanacharison, the Half-King, and Scarouady. Tanacharison sided with the British in the coming war^[2].

In 1748, the colony of Pennsylvania sent Conrad Weiser, Pennsylvania's ambassador to the Six Nations, to Logstown. He held council with a gathering of chiefs, who complied with his request for a count of their warriors in the Ohio Valley region^[1]:

Iroquois, or Six Nations:
- Senecas: 163
- Onondagas: 35
- Oneidas: 15
- Cayugas: 20
- Mohawks: 74
Allies of Iroquois:
- Wyandots: 100
Others:
- Shawnees: 162
- Tisagechroamis: 40
- Mohicans: 15
- Lenape (Delaware): 165
- Total : 789

In 1749, the French marked their claim of the watersheds of the Allegheny River and the Ohio River. The governor of New France sent a force of 300 men, led by Celeron de Bienville, down the Allegheny and Ohio. Along the way, Celeron nailed copper plates bearing royal arms to trees, and buried inscribed leaden plates at the mouths of principal tributaries. When Celeron arrived at Logstown, he discovered some English traders there. Incensed, he evicted the traders and wrote a scolding note to the governor of Pennsylvania^[3]. He then hectored the Native Americans about French dominance of the region. The expulsion of the British traders and the hectoring offended the Iroquois, some of whom returned to their homeland, tearing down the French copper plates as they went.

In 1752, a treaty was held at Logstown. Colonel Joshua Fry and two other commissioners represented the colony of Virginia, and Christopher Gist represented the Ohio Company^[1]. A Native American chief declared that his people did not consider that the 1744 treaty with the Six Nations at Lancaster, Pennsylvania ceded any land in the Allegheny Mountains or points west, but that they would not molest any settlements southeast of the Ohio River.

In 1753, Virginia Governor Dinwiddie sent an eight-man mission headed by a young George Washington to warn the French away from the Ohio Valley. From 24 to 30 November, Washington held council with Tanacharison and Scarouady at Logstown.

On May 28, 1754, in Battle of Jumonville Glen, Tanacharison killed Ensign Joseph Coulon de Jumonville, an act that helped to precipitate the French and Indian War. Following Washington's surrender at Fort Necessity, Scarouady burned down Logstown, on or about 1754-06-24. French forces under Louis Coulon de Villiers rebuilt the village^[1].

In the 1750s, New France built Fort Presque Isle on Lake Erie, Fort Le Boeuf on French Creek, Pennsylvania, Fort Machault near the junction of French Creek with the Allegheny River, and finally Fort Duquesne, at the forks of the Ohio.

When the army of General John Forbes occupied Fort Duquesne on 1758-11-24, the Native Americans abandoned many of their neighboring villages. With the construction of Fort Pitt, Logstown lost its prominence.

When Major George Washington again visited the site of Logstown on 1770-10-21, none of the residents were Native American.

[edit] Sources

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e "Logstown, on the Ohio : a historical sketch", Agnew, Daniel, originally published by Myers, Shinkle & Co., Pittsburgh, PA, 1894, available at Historic Pittsburgh. Weiser's census of warriors at Logstown, pg. 7.
^ "The Indian Wars of Pennsylvania," Sipe, C. Hale, 1931, fourth reprint, 1999, Wennawoods Publishing.
^ "History of Washington County, Pennsylvania," Crumrine, Boyd, L.H. Everts and Co., 1882. Account of Celeron at Logstown, pg. 26.