WV ~10

Lorna April 30, 1774

–~10 Blanchard estimate.[1]

— 10 Greathouse Point Family Research Center. “Letters From Yellow Creek 1774.”

— 9 West Virginia Div. of Culture and History. “April 30, 1774: Massacre of Logan’s family.”

Narrative Information

Brewster: “….Shikellimy, although one of the greatest Indians who ever lived, was always poor….the famous sons were Taghneghdoarus…and Tah-gah-jute, the celebrated Logan. Logan, after serving the English in many ways, removed to the Ohio region, and there in 1774, his whole family was murdered in cold blood, in an unprovoked attack by a company of white adventurers led by Captain Michael Cresap[2] and Daniel Greathouse.

“Although Logan never before had lifted his hand against the whites and had befriended them in many ways in the war which ensued, he avenged himself, in a terrible manner, ravaging the frontier without mercy. When the Indians were defeated, Logan refused to sue for peace; but instead, sent, by a messenger, to Lord Dunmore, Governor of Virginia, a celebrated address, one of the gems of oratory and because of its excellence, it is quoted as follows:

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 of peace. Such was my love for the whites, that my countrymen pointed as they passed, and said ‘Logan is the friend of white men.’ I had even thought to have lived with you, but for the injuries of one man, Colonel Cresap, the last spring, in cold blood, and unprovoked, murdered all the relatives of Logan, not even sparing my women and children. There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any living creature. This called on me for revenge. I have sought it; I have killed many; I have glutted my vengeance; for my country I rejoice at the beams of peace. But do not harbor a though 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.”[3]

(Brewster. The Pennsylvania and New York Frontier. 1954, p. 10.)

Fleenor: “….Herman [Greathouse] had a son named Daniel, and who lived on his 400 acres in 1771 at Mingo Bottom in Ohio County, Virginia (now West Virginia). Yellow Creek flows into the Ohio some forty miles above Wheeling. A Mr. Baker operated a tavern at the mouth of Yellow Creek, and sold alcohol to both Whites and to Indians. Tensions were already heightened due to several murders back and forth among the settlers and the Indians. Who had drawn first blood is long forgotten. Word was sent out from Fort Pitt for the settlers to congregate at the fort, as war seemed likely. Baker was preparing to evacuate when a squaw came across the river and told him that the Indians were preparing to murder him and his family. Baker called for help, and Daniel Greathouse and 21 other men responded, and on April 30, 1774 they concealed themselves in Baker’s back room. Soon nine (some records say seven) Indians, including almost all of Logan’s kin, crossed the river and came into Baker’s Tavern. Among them were Logan’s brother, and two women and a child. The Indians drank heavily, and Logan’s brother put on a coat and hat belonging to one of the white men, and was promptly shot. The concealed Greathouse party then rushed out of the back room, and killed all the Indians except for the child. They then rushed out of the house and saw two canoes filled with armed war painted Indians crossing the River toward the tavern. The whites fired on the Indians, killing most of the occupants of one of the canoes, and driving the second back across the river. Greathouse scalped the Indians, and tied the trophies to his belt….” (Fleenor, Lawrence J. Jr. The History of Yellow Creek (webpage). Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail Association. Feb 2004.)[4]

Gallo: “On April 30, 1774, a posse of armed colonists murdered a group of unsuspecting Native-Americans in cold blood along the banks of the Ohio River in modern day Hancock County, West Virginia. The Yellow Creek Massacre was so significant that Thomas Jefferson mentioned it in the only book he ever published, Notes on the State of Virginia. He called the killings “inhumane” and “indecent.”

“Thirteen years after the book’s original publication, Jefferson expanded on the massacre in An appendix to the notes on Virginia relative to the murder of Logan’s family (1880). Although the massacre is not widely known, it influenced the direction of the Revolutionary War by pitting some Native-American tribes against the colonists.

“After the French and Indian War, English colonists began to push further west. In 1768, the Cherokee tribe vacated all of the land east of the Ohio River when they signed the Treaty of Hard Labour, which was one of multiple treaties that shaped the early western boundary. All of these changes created tension between the Native-Americans and the colonists.

“By 1774, tensions were rising along the Ohio River Valley. There were various tribes located along the Ohio River, but they were mostly Shawnees. There was another group of natives along the river: the Mingos. The tribe was a mixture of Iroquois, Seneca, Cayuga, Delaware, Shawnee and other groups. A major Mingo settlement was located in Ohio at the mouth of Yellow Creek which led into the Ohio River. Across the river, where Mountaineer Racetrack currently stands, was a small trading outpost occupied by English colonist Joshua Baker. According to firsthand accounts, the outpost was frequented by colonists and natives. the were looking to purchase rum off of Baker.

“Even though the colonists and the natives could interact peacefully, there was still tension. Leading up to the massacre, there were multiple incidents of colonists clashing with the natives. A few days before the massacre, Michael Cresap killed two Native-Americans just north of Wheeling, West Virginia. According to first hand accounts, the colonist’s fears were exacerbated by the murder of two men who were canoeing down the Ohio River with goods….

“According to John Sappington, the only person directly involved with the massacre, the final straw for Baker was when a young native girl came to his house crying and saying that the other natives were planning to kill Baker and his family. Sappington stated:

….In consequence of this information, Baker got a number of men to the amount of 21, to come to his house, and it was determined that the men should lie concealed in the back apartment; that if the Indians did come and behaved themselves peaceably, they should not be molested; but if not, the men were to shew [sic] themselves and act accordingly.”

“Sappington’s testimony is important to understanding how the massacre was planned, but it does not necessarily tell the truth. As a historian, one should never assume that a single eye witness account will tell the whole story. Instead, one should gather the most reliable primary sources, and interpret them in the most objective way possible.

“The next day, a group of natives crossed the Ohio River [from OH side] and visited Bakers outpost — four men and three squaws. A settler named Daniel Greathouse and a group of approximately 20 men hid nearby and waited for their moment to strike. As the socializing progressed, a few of the natives became intoxicated on Baker’s rum. At this point in the story, the details start to get blurry. Every account differed in some way, so I will just outline the common claims. At some point during the gathering, the natives supposedly provoked the colonists by mocking them. The twenty or so men, jumped out and brutally killed all of the natives, except for one child. The child was spared because the mother pleaded with the colonists. She told them that the child was half white, and that the father was a man by the name of Gibson. The colonists spared the child, and then ended the mother’s life. They were cold and calculated. Not only did they kill the natives, but they desecrated their bodies, disemboweled them and hung them from trees. The colonists then ran to the bank of the river and waited for the other natives to cross. As approximately 20 natives started crossing, the colonists sniped them out of their boats, one by one, until they retreated.

“News of the massacre spread quickly, because the first group of natives killed were family members of the powerful Mingo Chief Logan. He was a well-known figure in the Ohio Valley at the time. He was known by many of the colonists because of his conversion to Christianity. However, when he heard the news of the massacre, Logan, along with a few other Shawnees and Mingos, sought revenge. For Logan and the natives, the massacre was a declaration of war. So began Lord Dunmore’s War….” (Gallo, Louie P. The Yellow Creek Massacre. 2-10-2014.)

Greathouse Point Family Research Center: “The “Battle of Yellow Creek”[5] occurred on 30 April 1774, when the family of a Mingo Indian named Logan, along with some other Indians were killed by a group of white men led by Daniel Greathouse. Logan’s brother, mother, and sister and other Indians went from their camp at the mouth of Yellow Creek (on the Ohio side of the Ohio River) to Joshua Baker’s cabin in Baker’s Bottom (on the Virginia side of the river). After hearing the report of gunfire from Joshua Baker’s cabin, other Indians crossed the Ohio River; ten Indians were killed.

“The sources for this event are letters and depositions of participants who recorded their memories sometimes within days, and sometimes months or years later. The exact date of the massacre–so long a matter of uncertainty–was fixed by Valentine Crawford’s letter to George Washington; it was written at Jacob’s Creek on 7 May 1774. Crawford stated: “On Saturday last, about 12 o’clock, one Greathouse, and about twenty men, fell on a party of Indians at the mouth of Yellow Creek, and killed ten of them. They brought away one child a prisoner, which is now at my brother William Crawford’s.” That Saturday was 30 April 1774. The sister of Logan was the mother of the child who was taken to William Crawford’s plantation at New Haven. (This area later became part of present-day Connellsville, PA, in 1909.)

“At the time of the massacre, Joshua Baker’s cabin at Baker’s Bottom (near present-day Newell, WV) was in the West Augusta District of Virginia, on land which became part of Yohogania County, VA. Land in the West Augusta District was ceded to the counties of Monongalia, Ohio, and Yohogania when those counties were created by Virginia on 8 November 1776….” (Greathouse of Augusta County, VA (webpage) “Letters From Yellow Creek 1774.”)

Landon: “On April 30, 1774, Daniel Greathouse led an ambush at Joshua Baker’s Tavern, at Baker’s Bottom in what is now Hancock County, against a party of Mingo Indians. This attack appears to have been motivated by the settlers’ fears of an impending Indian attack, fears based upon rumors circulated in the upper Ohio Valley and the hostile actions between settlers and Indians. Greathouse assembled a party of frontiersmen, including his brother Jacob, Joseph Tomlinson, and others. The day before the attack they spied on the Mingo camp at the mouth of Yellow Creek, in present Ohio. They found that it was too strong to attack and recrossed the river to Baker’s Tavern in present West Virginia.

“On the night of the attack, a party of eight Mingos arrived at Baker’s Tavern. Accounts of the ensuing events differ. The Greathouse party apparently plied the Indians with alcohol and then killed them in a premeditated act. None of the Indians who were in the tavern survived the attack. The Greathouse party also fired on two canoes of Indians who came to investigate the noise. After the ambush, Greathouse, his men, and some settlers retreated to nearby Washington, Pennsylvania. The massacre had dire consequences on the frontier. Among the dead were Chief Logan’s brother and sister. The attack turned Logan against the settlers and led to several retaliatory raids during the summer of 1774. Logan, who mistakenly credited the attack to frontiersman Michael Cresap, spoke of his grief and ensuing anger in his famous speech.”[6] (Landon, Thomas Swift. Greathouse Party Massacre (webpage). E-WV, The West Virginia Encyclopedia. 8-13-2012.)

Larsen: “Peace in the northern woodlands had been maintained between the European settlers and the Iroquois League for half a century, thanks in no small part to the hard work, friendship, and help of Chief Shikellamy and his sons Tachnechdours “James Logan” named after the Secretary of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania, a man the chief held in high regard, and Tah-Gah-Jute “John Logan.” Mindful of all he had done, the Europeans had awarded Shikellamy the King George I Peace Medal. (Moore, 1992).

“All of this was consistent with the British policy toward the American Indians, which was peaceful co-existence and even eventual assimilation. At the time, it was Chief Shikellamy’s plan that there would be no war, but that the Indians would maintain their historic lifestyle….

“At the time of the Yellow Creek Massacre, tensions were high in the area where Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Virginia’s borders met, and the Yellow Creek emptied into the Ohio River. The Iroquois League had been deceived into ceding their lands in the Ohio Valley, south of the river, to the British in the 1768 Treaty of Fort Stanwix. This treaty was of lesser concern to the Mohawk, Onondaga, and Tuscarora, but it was of paramount importance to the Shawnee, inasmuch as it was their home that had been given away for pennies on the dollar. (Marshall, 1967)

“As bad and one sided as the Treaty of Fort Stanwix was, even it didn’t protect the Indians from the settler’s depredations. “The frontier advanced irrepressibly. The Americans defying every attempt of the English Crown to limit them to territory proscribed in its Indian treaties, trespassed the rich valley of the Clinch and its tributaries and pushed into Kentucky and along the banks of the upper Ohio. They came to hunt and then to settle in lands which the Shawnee and the Cherokee claimed as their hunting grounds. . . . The Shawnee had good reason to complain. Throughout the summer and fall of 1773 separate groups of surveyors appeared in several regions of the Virginia frontier to lay out tracts for homesteaders already on the ground and for placements for government grants to veterans of the French and Indian War. . . . The Shawnee, hoping that the English government would do them justice, protested the white aggressions to Alexander McKee, deputy of Sir William Johnson, who was the Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Northern Department. The King’s orders, they remonstrated, restricted settlement to the Great Kanawha River, but this boundary agreement was being violated and their hunting grounds overrun. . . . In the face of the treaties it had ratified the British government could hardly deny the justice of these arguments. Lord Dunmore, the King’s appointed governor of the colony of Virginia, was therefore reprimanded for allowing and even encouraging the aggressions. In his reply to Lord Dartmouth he [wrote], ‘the established Authority of any government in America, and the policy of Government at home, are both insufficient to restrain the Americans; and that they do and will remove as their avidity and restlessness incite them . . . they do not conceive that Government has any right to forbid their taking possession of a lands’ attracted by the plenty of game they found to employ ‘themselves in hunting, in which they interfere much more with the Indians than if they pursued agriculture alone, and the Indian hunters … already begin to feel the scarcity this has occasioned, which greatly encreases (sic) their resentment.’” (Caruso, 2002)

“…John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore was the man most behind destruction of the peace put together so carefully by men like Chief Shikellamy and King George II…. On 25 April 1774, the Earl issued a proclamation that stated in part, “Whereas, I have Reason to apprehend that the Government of Pennsylvania, in prosecution of the Claim to Pittsburg and its Dependencies, will endeavour (sic) to obstruct his Majesty’s Government thereof under my Administration, by illegal and unwarrantable Commitments of the Officers I have appointed for that Purpose, and that that Settlement is in some Danger of Annoyance from the Indians also. . .” (Jacob, 1826, p 58; Bailey, 2000) Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, and more than a few others then and since have believed that Dunmore was behind the Indian war, and furthermore, it was his ill-rule that was most often the model for the complaints to King George III, in the Declaration of Independence….

“Cresap’s War II

“Michael Cresap then started the shooting war between the Colony of Virginia and the Mingo and Shawnee Indians. How did it happen? Dunmore’s agent Connolly, sent a letter to Cresap dated 21 April 1774, and received O/A 26 April 1774, basically telling him that war with the Indians was inevitable. (Jacob, 1826, pp 64-64) Cresap quickly called together his command, as well as some settlers, and traders, and with a few exceptions, all declared war on the Indians. His minions went forth and before the end of the day were back with a couple of Indian scalps. The next day Cresap and his men attacked a party of Shawnee who were traveling on the Ohio, killing one of them and wounded two others.

“Had these military actions been for the purpose of protecting the settlers from Indian depredations, they would have targeted the offending Indians, or at the very least their clan. Rather, Cresap’s command targeted, unoffending, friendly Indians, who were close at hand, and unsuspectingly going about their daily business….

“It was then that Cresap took his command and headed up the Ohio with the stated intention of wiping out the Yellow Creek Indian village. They marched about five miles in that direction, but stopped to eat; it was then the men got talking among themselves. Several had been at the village about four weeks previous, and knew it to be peaceful; it was full of men, women, and children, with all their possessions. That it presented no threat to the white settlers was well know to these men and they then mutinied and refused to proceed further. (Clark, 1798)

“Thomas Jefferson was among the first to write of the white man’s war on the Indians on the Ohio River. His Notes on the State of Virginia in Query VI, contained only a couple of paragraphs on the subject, and was privately printed in 1782, was printed in Paris in 1785, and in London in 1787. (Jefferson, 1787) Yet it created such a stir that it caused him to re-investigate the matter between 1797 and 1800 and again published his findings and conclusions in Relative to the murder of Logan’s family, printed in Philadelphia. (Jefferson, 1800) This addendum was included as appendix 4 in subsequent printings of Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia. With lots more evidence, but only minor revisions he came to basically the same conclusion he had previously reached.

“Yellow Creek Massacre….Yellow Creek was not only an unprovoked surprise attack, but it also signaled a significant change from Britain’s peaceful co-existence policy, to the make war – steal land policy that followed….

“…Theodore Roosevelt called the Yellow Creek Massacre “one of the most brutal and cowardly deeds ever done on the frontier. . . . It was an inhuman and revolting deed, which should consign the names of the perpetrators to eternal infamy,” and he called Greathouse, and by implication Dunmore, Connally, & Cresap, “inhuman and cowardly scoundrels.” (Roosevelt, 1889)

“Hermann Groethausen, was a German immigrant. His descendant Daniel Greathouse was a frontier trader, a neighbor of Cresap’s, a friend, and a fellow war hawk, and he did heed Cresap’s declaration of war. Daniel gathered a group of friends and relatives to the number of roughly 20, who conspired to “kill them some Indians.” Among Daniel’s confederates were Joshua Baker, John Biggs, George Cox, Jacob & Jonathan Greathouse, Wm Fitzgerald, Wm Grills, Edward King, John & Rafe Mahon, John Martin, Michael Myers, John Sappington, Joseph Smith (a one armed man), Benjamin, Joseph, & Samuel Tomlinson. (Joshua Baker’s wife was a sister of the Tomlinsons) Each of the foregoing participants is known with varying degrees of certainty, and the rest of the 20, thankfully for the sake of their posterity, are lost to history. (Smith, 2006) The Greathouse clan decided to attack the Mingo, not because of anything those particular Indians had done, but because they were close at hand, peaceful, and therefore easy and not too dangerous….

“On 29 April 1774, they reconnoitered the Mingo camp at the mouth of Yellow Creek, located on the Ohio side of the river about halfway between Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Wheeling, West Virginia. They concluded it would be too risky a target to attack. According to a statement by Michael Myers, given three-quarters-of-a-century after the fact, he killed two Indians during the reconnoiter. (Thwaites, 1905, pp. 9-19) Since no one else ever reported these killings, it’s hard to know if Myer’s story is true or just some sort of “fish tale” braggadocio….

“Greathouse’s scouting party then re-crossed the river to Joshua Baker’s trading post and tavern at Baker’s Bottom, Augusta County, Virginia (later Ohio County, Virginia, and now Hancock County, West Virginia).

“The following day, 30 April 1774, a group of between seven and ten Mingo Indians came to Baker’s, where the Greathouse gang offered them all the free liquor they could drink, which all but three refused. They then challenged the sober men to a shooting match. They adjourned to the outdoors to shoot at a mark . Once the Indians had discharged their weapons, the men hiding in the backroom rushed out and began a killing spree.

“Among the dead were the following members of Logan’s immediate family: his wife Mellana Alvaretta…his brother Taylanee ‘John Petty’; his nephew Molnah; his sister Koonay ‘Ann Gibson.’

“During the massacre, Ann, with her papoose in a cradle board strapped to her back, begged them not to murder her daughter as, “she is your kin” having a white father. Ann was shot in the head, and her two month old daughter was cut from her back and grabbed by the ankles with the intent of dashing her brains out on the rocks. The Greathouse group then proceeded to mutilate the other Indian’s bodies, scalping them, hanging the trophies on their belts….

“Two canoes of Indians were seen coming across the river to investigate the ruckus. The Greathouse group fired on them killing all in the first canoe and sending the second skedaddling.

“The Greathouse gang did not, however, kill Ann’s daughter, Diana Gibson, but rather took her as a prisoner of war. She, along with one of the scalps, was reportedly delivered to Cresap. She was in turn turned over to Colonel William Crawford; she was eventually returned to the care of her father, Captain John Gibson. (Jefferson, 1800; Mayer, 1867)….”

(Larsen, Clark. The Yellow Creek Massacre: Lord Dunmore’s War & Logan’s Lament. 5-27-2013.)

Nelson: “….In 1773, a Mingo headman named Johnny Logan and a small band of followers had established a village thirty miles north of Wheeling, near the mouth of Yellow Creek (close to present-day Wellsville, Ohio). Logan was the oldest son of Johnny Shikellamy, and both father and son were well known along the western border for their steadfast loyalty to the British….

“Logan’s home lay opposite the site of Joshua Baker’s Virginia homestead and trading post. Baker and the Mingos had lived peacefully ever since Logan’s arrival. But in early May, a group of Virginians, led by Daniel Greathouse, methodically lured ten members of the Mingo village to Baker’s trading post where, over the course of the afternoon, they were murdered. Among the dead were several members of Logan’s immediate family, including his mother and brother. Greathouse and his companions also killed Logan’s sister as she carried her newborn infant on her back….” (Nelson, Larry L. A Man of Distinction Among Them, Alexander McKee and the Ohio Country Frontier, 1754-1799. Kent, OH: The Kent State University Press, 1999. Excepts from pages 67-81 accessed 3-27-2017 at frontierfolk.net.)

Touringohio.com: “Johnny Logan is a name deeply associated with Ohio.

“Logan’s friendly relations with white settlers changed with the Yellow Creek Massacre of 30 April 1774. A group of Virginia frontiersmen led by Daniel Greathouse murdered a number of Mingos, 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 her infant daughter. Her children were fathered by 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 Natives in Baker’s cabin were all murdered, except for the infant child, who was spared with the intention of giving her to her father. At least two canoes were dispatched from the Yellow Creek village, but they were repelled by Greathouse’s men concealed along the river. In all, approximately a dozen 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.

“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. The Royal Governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore, responded by launching an expedition against the Mingos and Shawnees, in the conflict known as Dunmore’s War.” (Touringohio.com. Yellow Creek Massacre (webpage). Ohio City Productions, Inc., ©2017.)

West Virginia Division of Culture and History: “April 30, 1774: Massacre of Logan’s family.

“During colonial days, tensions ran high between white settlers and Native Americans in the Ohio Valley. But, when the family of Logan, a well-known Mingo chief, was murdered April 30, 1774, matters exploded into open warfare.

“Members of Logan’s family and others were slaughtered along the Ohio River in present-day Hancock County. While Logan was away on a hunting trip, his family members crossed to the western Virginia side of the river at Baker’s Tavern and met up with a group of settlers, led by Daniel Greathouse. After an evening of heavy drinking, Greathouse and his companions killed 9 of the Indians. Logan, who had previously been considered a friend of the frontier pioneers, vowed to kill 10 white settlers for every murdered member of his family. That summer, Logan killed between 13 and 30 western Virginians and took others prisoner….” (West Virginia Archives & History. On This Day in West Virginia History… “April 30, 1774: Massacre of Logan’s family.” 2015.)

Sources

Brewster, William. The Pennsylvania and New York Frontier. History of from 1720 to the Close of the Revolution. Philadelphia: George S. MacManus Company, 1954.

Fleenor, Lawrence J. Jr. The History of Yellow Creek (webpage). Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail Association. Feb 2004. Accessed 3-27-2017 at: http://danielboonetrail.com/history-perspectives/the-history-of-yellow-creek/

Gallo, Louie P. The Yellow Creek Massacre. 2-10-2014. Accessed 3-27-2017 at: https://intriguinghistory.wordpress.com/2014/02/10/april-30-1774-a-turning-point-in-american-history/

Greathouse Point Family Research Center. Greathouse of Augusta County, VA (webpage) “Letters From Yellow Creek 1774.” ©1998-2011. Accessed 3-27-2017 at: http://greathouse.us/archives/usa/va/augusta/1774-letters-from-yellow-creek.htm

Jefferson, Thomas. Appendix to the Notes on Virginia Relative to the Murder of Logan’s Family. Philadelphia: Printed by Samuel H. Smith, M.D.CCC (1800). Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from University of Pittsburgh Library System. Accessed 3-27-2017 at: https://archive.org/details/appendixtonoteso00jeff

Landon, Thomas Swift. Greathouse Party Massacre (webpage). E-WV, The West Virginia Encyclopedia. 8-13-2012. Accessed 3-27-2017 at: https://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/2160

Larsen, Clark. The Yellow Creek Massacre: Lord Dunmore’s War & Logan’s Lament. 5-27-2013. Accessed 3-27-2017 at: https://familysearch.org/photos/artifacts/1161689

Nelson, Larry L. A Man of Distinction Among Them, Alexander McKee and the Ohio Country Frontier, 1754-1799. Kent, OH: The Kent State University Press, 1999. Excepts from pages 67-81 accessed at frontierfolk.net. Google preview accessed 3-27-2017 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=y1KekDaaKKAC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

West Virginia Division of Culture and History. West Virginia Archives & History. On This Day in West Virginia History… “April 30, 1774: Massacre of Logan’s family.” 2015. Accessed 3-27-2017 at: http://www.wvculture.org/history/thisdayinwvhistory/0430.html

[1] Since the number of ten native dead is noted in a letter to George Washington just seven days later (on May 7), this appears to be fairly authoritative. However, given the ambiguity one can see in the accounts noted herein, especially as to the number of Natives in canoes, we use the “~” sign to indicate “approximately” ten Natives. No writes died.

[2] Cresap was not involved, though Logan obviously thought he was responsible. See other entries below.

[3] Thomas Jefferson, in his Appendix to the Notes on Virginia Relative to the Murder of Logan’s Family, writes that the speech “was so admired, that it flew through all the public papers of the continent, and though the magazines and other periodical publications of Great Britain; and those who were boys at that day will now attest, that the speech of Logan used to be given them as a school exercise for repetition.” (p. 5.)

[4] Approval to use sought and received from Lawrence Fleenor 3-27-2017.

[5] The only account we have thus far seen that refers to this atrocity as a “battle” is on the Greathouse family website. As we have noted in footnote above, no whites were killed, nor apparently wounded.

[6] Cites: (1) Alexander Scott Withers. Chronicles of Border Warfare. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke, 1895; reprint, McClain, 1994. (2) G. L. Cranmer. History of the Upper Ohio Valley. Madison, WI: Brant, Fuller & Co., 1891. (3) Thomas Jefferson. Notes on the State of Virginia. Richmond, VA: J. W. Randolph, 1853.