Logan The Mingo

LOGAN THE MINGO - BY FRANKLIN B. SAWVEL - FOREWORD - THE purpose of this narrative is to recount the events and achievements that make up the life story of Logan, the mingo, in the order of their occurrence with a fullness and completeness not hitherto attempted. The author has used material from many records and writers freely without acknowledging the source in the text but adds a bibliography of Logan literature and list of works consulted and drawn from which he hopes will be a due and adequate acknowledgement to each. The text itself more than suggests the original source of some of the subject matter. The North American Indians did not have a written language and left no literature to preserve their myths and ideaIs by recounting deeds of valor and chivalry of brave men and the devotion of beautiful maidens and no poetry to immortal- ize their Wise Men and Chiefs. Their history was written by their enemies and conqueror., peoples of different nationalities and of different culture and social ideals. It is not surprising then that so few names have come down to us and that our inheritance from the lives of their capable and renowned leaders, whether King, Chief or Sachem, in the struggle for existence and for the attainment of what satisfied them as a worthy nationa1 and race ambition, is so meager and so lightly appreciated. The name Mingo, commonly applied to Logan, is of Algonquin origin and means stealthy or treacherous. It was given to the Iroquois by the Delawares and affiliated tribes and later became the special name of the band of that nation, mostly Senecas, that left the common home in New York and migrated westward to the Ohio country. When he moved from Pennsylvania, he cast his fortunes with these wanderers and though some times called by his Indian name, Tah-gah-jute, he was no longer called Shikellamy, but became known to history as Logan, the Mingo. - CONTENTS - CHAPTER I LOGANS FOREBEARS AND EARLY LIFE PAGE . 13 11 LOGAN DEPUTY ANn ELECTED IS CHOSEN SACHEM , . , . . . . . . 18 111 HE MEETS GREAT MEN IN COUNCIL . . 22 IV A PERIOD OF UNREST AND DISTRUST . . 27 V FIVE YEARS AMONG THE MOUNTAINS . . 36 VI SOME CAUSES OF REVENGE AND CRUELTY 43 V11 LOGAN MOVES TO THE OHIO COUNTRY . 52 V111 THE MURDER OF LOGANS FAMILY . . 59 IX VALUES PLACED ON HUMAN LIFE . . . 63 X PERSONALTRAITS . . . . . . 67 XI LOGAN TAKES REVENGE . . . . 69 XI1 DUNMORES WAR . . . . . . . 78 XIII LOGANS FAMOUS SPEECH . . . . . 82 XIV YEARS OFUNCERTAINTY . . . . . 87 XV FAVORS THE BRITISH CAUSE-A CONFES- SION . . . . . . . . . 98 XVI THE END . . . . , , . . . . 100 XVII TRIBUTES-IN SONG AND STORY . . . 102 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF LOGAN LITERATURE . 109 LIST OF 1LLUSTRATIONS LOCAN, THE MINGO . . . . . . .- Frontifpiece FACING PAGE LOGAN SPRING, RUDSVILLE, PENNSYLVANIA . . 40 LOGAN THE MINGO LOGAN THE MINGO CHAPTER I - LOGANS FOREBEARS AND EARLY LIFE - LOGAN was human. His conduct shows what Cooper calls the diversity or great antithesis of character of the North American Indian. The worst and best quaIities of human beings were joined in him. He had the gross instincts, cunning and treachery, thirst for blood and revenge of the Red Man and the sense of justice and honor, love of virtue and peace and the reverence for Deity of the White Man. There was something more noble in this son of the forest than his primitive exterior and inborn savagery. He was first of all a human being and then an Indian with a vision. His father was born in Montreal of Canadian French parents and had been carried away by the Indians when a child and brought up by the Oneidas, a tribe of the Iroquois. The English called him Shikellamy and the Moravian missionaries spelled.........