Logan’s mother, sister and cousin, a little girl, with four Indian men, crossed in a canoe to Baker’s; where after being made drunk, they were all murdered, except the little girl who was carried off a prisoner.
In retaliation, Logan with several Indians, not being able to find Cresap, came up the river to the mouth of the Kanawha, where they murdered several white men; then ascending the Kanawha to its head, crossed the mountain to Campbell’s plantation and stole the two children. They carried them to Shauane-Town, on the Scioto, near the present site of Circleville.
The first of July, Logan, accompanied by seven Mingoes, into which confederacy he had been adopted and made a chief, ascended the west fork of the Monongahela into what was then West Augusta county where they came upon William Robinson and two farm hands working in a field. They killed one of his men and made Robinson and the other prisoners, carrying them to Shauane-Town; [pg 117] Logan declaring it to be his purpose to kill or make captive as many whites as they had murdered of his kindred.
Though Logan spoke English he could write very little. He therefore made Robinson write a note to Captain Cresap, in the nature of a declaration of war, which was tied to a war club and thrown into the first white settlement he passed. It read:
“Captain Cresap:
“What did you kill my people on Yellow Creek for? The white people killed my kin at Conestoga and I let it pass. But you killed my kin, even my mother and sister on Yellow Creek and took my cousin prisoner. Then I thought I must kill too; and I have been three times to war since; but the Indians are not angry, only myself.
“July 21, 1774.
John Logan.”
“July 21, 1774.
John Logan.”
Cresap, Greathouse and certain other traders continued murdering Indians, until they stirred up the whole Indian country; then the tribes in retaliation began killing the settlers west of the Alleghanies, making no discrimination between the settlers and traders. The settlers deserting their homes fled eastward across the mountains.
A man by the name of Connelley, the confidential agent of Governor Dunmore, came to Shauane-Town and there met in council with the chiefs of the Shauanese, Delawares, Wyandottes and Mingoes; his mission being to induce them to war with the “Long Knives,” or Virginians. He was successful and war was declared.
Four hundred of the Virginia militia assembled at Wheeling, marched down the Ohio and up the Muskingum, killing Indians and destroying their towns.
[pg 118] Jefferson in his “Notes on Virginia,” comments upon these incidents as follows: