(This is a page from Charlotte's Web of Illusion)
Chief
Logan and Lord Dunmore's War 
In October of 1774, an army of Virginians from the Shenandoah Valley and others from Western Pennsylvania, under the command of John Murray, Earl of Dunmore, Royal Governor of Virginia, left the Ohio River valley heading up the Hockhocking following primitive foot paths. At the time, they were an unlikely troop of bristly adventurers tramping upstream through the Hockhocking watershed headed for an encounter with some of the locals. The town of Logan, Ohio derives its name from a tragic episode associated with the arrival of these pioneer settler soldiers, many of whom have had their names assigned to cities, counties, parks and roadways throughout Ohio.
According to some historians, Lord Dunmore's armed force of nearly 2,000 men included George Rogers Clark, Daniel Boone, Simon Kenton, Daniel Morgan, William Crawford, Ebenezer Zane, Simon Girty and several others. This division and another group of 1,100 armed men from southern Virginia, under the command of Colonel Andrew Lewis, headed down the Ohio River valley seeking an engagement with native tribes living in the Hocking and Scioto River valleys.
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Daniel Boone
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George Rogers Clark
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William Crawford
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Atrocities during the previous springtime precipitated this action. The family of a Mingo chief, called Logan, was brutally massacred by settlers near the confluence of Yellow Creek and the Ohio River near present day Steubenville. Chief Logan, who had endured ridicule for his efforts toward peaceful coexistence and friendship with white settlers, sought vengeance for the murder of his family and as a result of Logan's retaliation many settlers died on the frontier. Ensuing hostilities against Indians drew other tribes into the melee. Murdering and scalping of Indians and whites become commonplace in the Ohio River Valley. These violent encounters gave way to yet more conflict between settlers and native tribes. The Mingos, Shawnees, Delawares and other tribes suffered at the hands of Europeans many times over. Violated treaties and unfair trade led to loss of land and a continuous push of native tribes westward into the Ohio country. They faced a seemingly endless stream of settlers with a voracious appetite for land which continued to deprive them of their homes and hunting grounds.
In response to hostilities, and to investigate land acquisition opportunities for himself, Lord Dunmore organized a militia of frontiersmen to march into the Ohio country, suppress the conflict and pacify the Shawnees and Mingos. Dunmore's division headed down the Ohio River from Wheeling. Colonel Lewis' army marched down the Kanawha River with the expectation of joining Dunmore where it flowed into the Ohio. However, Dunmore's force stopped at the mouth of the Hockhocking and built a fortification known as Fort Gower. Instead of meeting up with Lewis and his division, Dunmore headed up the Hockhocking. Lewis subsequently found his detachment besieged by a force of Shawnee warriors under the leadership of Chief Cornstalk.
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Cornstalk
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Although the warriors under Cornstalk were greatly outnumbered by Lewis' army, after a day of combat losses were nearly equal between the opposing forces. This engagement, on the Virginia side of the Ohio River, is known as the Battle of Point Pleasant and is reckoned by some historians to have been a landmark or 'watershed' event in the settlement of the Ohio country. Claiming victory, by only the thinnest of margins and by virtue of greater numbers of men, the Virginians gained a foothold in the Ohio River Valley. After the battle, Shawnee survivors withdrew to the Ohio side of the river and retreated to Cornstalk's Town on the banks of Scippo Creek in the region known today as Pickaway County.
Upon reaching the Falls of the Hockhocking, Lord Dunmore and his army left
that valley and in a two day march passed over the divide between the two
watersheds into that of the Scioto River. Dunmore and his army met with Cornstalk
and other chiefs at Camp Charlotte, named after King Charles of England. (A
stone monument marks that site today along SR 56 northwest of Laurelville.)
The remainder of Colonel Lewis' division arrived intent on crushing the Shawnees
to avenge friends lost at the Battle of Point Pleasant. Dunmore, interested
in pacification and land acquisition, intervened and ordered the angry colonel
and his highly irritated men to return to Virginia. Courting the Indians,
Dunmore had double the military force of Lewis and the potential aid of the
tribes to enforce his demand. A treaty was signed at this meeting between
Cornstalk and leaders of other Indian tribes making the regions south and
east of the Ohio River safe for settlement. So ended what Ohio history remembers
as Dunmore's War.
However, there was one notable absence at Camp Charlotte. The Mingo chief, Logan, remained at his camp, refusing to participate in the signing of Dunmore's Treaty.
He is reported to have delivered a message to Dunmore by way of a an envoy from Dunmore's party. The message was delivered beneath the branches of a grand old elm tree which came to be celebrated for more than a century as the Logan Elm.
Eary 1900's Gathering under the Logan Elm
Logan's Lament gained worldwide fame a few years later when Thomas Jefferson read it and wrote of it's eloquence in his "Notes on Virginia." Jefferson declared that Logan's speech was equal to the best examples of classical rhetoric including Cicero, Demosthenes and other eminent orators that Europe and the world had produced.
In early November, Dunmore's army returned to Fort Gower, a rudimentary safehold composed of a stockade and a crude blockhouse that protected the boats and canoes which were to carry them back up the Ohio. Prior to Dunmore's Treaty at Camp Charlotte all attention had been focused on the war against the Shawnees and the Mingos. However, back at Fort Gower, cold, wet and tired, this unique group of frontiersmen held a meeting of officers that turned to other matters of a broader concern and resulted in the Fort Gower Resolves. Shortly after the meeting at Fort Gower the Resolves were carried to a newspaper in Williamsburg and published in The Virginia Gazette. Among other statements The Fort Gower Resolves stated,
"... But as for the love of Liberty, and attachment to the real interests and just rights of America outweigh every other consideration, we resolve that we will exert every power within us for the defense of American liberty, and for the support of her just rights and privileges; not in any precipitate, riotous, or tumultuous manner, but when regularly called forth by the unanimous voice of our countrymen ...".
Considered by some historians to be the first declaration of independence, The Fort Gower Resolves were adopted on Nov. 5, 1774, six months before the events at Lexington and Concord and eighteen months prior to the Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776.
Meanwhile, atrocities continued in the Ohio River valley. Chief Cornstalk, present at the adoption of the Fort Gower Resolves, was murdered along with his son and several of his followers after they voluntarily surrendered themselves as hostages to satisfy American demands in treaty negotiations in 1777. Delaware Chieftain Captain White Eyes was murdered in 1778 while guiding American troops through the wilderness. During the war of independence, Chief Logan allegedly collected more American scalps and prisoners until his rage ebbed toward melancholy and he was, at last, murdered by an Indian kinsman.
Immediately following the War for Independence, Americans again looked to the Ohio country. Veterans of the American Revolution were awarded land grants. The Ohio Company formed and some of its members settled and established Marietta in 1788 on their way toward the establishment of the American Western University, which came to be known as Ohio University. Increasing numbers of settlers began coming down the Ohio River by flatboat. Settlements grew. Hostilities on the frontier continued. More forts were built.
Ongoing hostilities eventually led to the arrival of General Anthony Wayne. His army met a federation of tribes along the Maumee River. Shawnees under the leadership of Blue Jacket and Tecumseh, Miamis led by Little Turtle, and other tribes including Ottawas, Chippewas and Pottawatomies, some British and French Canadians disguised as Indians, and none other than the notorious renegade Simon Girty were defeated at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in August of 1794.
The Treaty of Greenville in 1795 relieved the Indians of the major portion of what was to become, in 1803, the state of Ohio. The Treaty of Greenville resulted in the removal of many of the native tribes from the regions of the Hockhocking, Scioto and Miami river valleys. Chief Tarhe and his Wyandotte tribe left the Hockhocking valley and relocated along the Sandusky River in northwest Ohio in what is today Wyandotte County. Others moved into regions of northwestern Ohio into the Auglaize and Maumee river valleys. All of the tribes had to become familiar with the trails, game, and sources of salt and flint and other resources in their new homes in different watersheds.
Some of the members of Dunmore's army distinguished themselves after their adventures in the Hocking valley. Daniel Boone and Simon Kenton won acclaim as scouts.
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Daniel Morgan
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Daniel Morgan won an important victory at the Battle of Cowpens during the Revolution.
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| George Rogers Clark |
George Rogers Clark gained fame in his campaigns against the Indians and the British. Ebenezer Zane blazed the first road, Zane's Trace, through the Ohio country from Wheeling, Virginia to Limestone, Kentucky.
Simon Girty gained notoriety through his mercenary activities resulting in the deaths of Indians, innocent white settlers, and military personnel. He is reported to have been present at the torture and execution of Colonel William Crawford, who was captured by the Wyandottes, tortured and burned at the stake in the region of the Great Black Swamp southwest of Lake Erie.
Because of the savage murder of one man's family in 1774, today our maps serve as silent witnesses to the people and subsequent events of that era. The towns of Logan, Kenton and Zanesville along with Clark, Morgan, Logan and Crawford counties are relics of the time. Lake Logan, Wayne National Forest, Fort Wayne and many other streets, hotels, taverns and towns reflect the history of that era in the names on the signs. Not so many places have been named after Lord Dunmore and Simon Girty.
As a society with unprecedented access to information, it is surprising how quickly we forget. With the signs of the times past and present all around us, we have tremendous ability to learn and understand our heritage. And as the historians say, those who forget their past and don't learn from history are destined to repeat it. If we don't learn the lessons of history regarding the cohabitation of our world, diplomacy with our neighbors and equitable allocation of resources, we or our descendants may find the repetition of such hard times a reality. That's a high price to pay to get your name on a map.
From the writings and travels of Tom O'Grady