Dedication of the Logan Elm. 295
chief, Leatherlips, who lies buried on
the spot where he was
killed, about fifteen miles northwest of
Columbus.
A significant feature of the program was
an address by Mr.
Frank Tallmadge, of Columbus, a lineal
descendant of Colonel
Cresap, the man that Logan believed to
be responsible for the
massacre of his family. Mr. Tallmadge
sought to show that the
Red Man was mistaken, and spoke as
follows:
ADDRESS OF MR. FRANK TALLMADGE.
"Roll back-my soul-to the times of
my Fathers. * * *
There comes a voice that awakes my
soul-It is the voice of days
that are gone-They roll before me with
all their deeds."-
Ossian.
Colonel Thomas Cresap was born in
Yorkshire, England, in
1702. He emigrated to this country at the age of fifteen, and
first settled on the Susquehanna near
what is now Havre de
Grace. He became a surveyor, espoused
the cause of Lord Balti-
more, and is said to have surveyed the
line between Maryland
and Pennsylvania. He moved shortly
afterwards to what was
then the frontier, to a place in western
Maryland that he called
Skipton, after the town of his nativity,
but now called Old Town,
situate a few miles above the junction
of the north and south
branches of the Potomac on the north
fork. He acquired four-
teen hundred acres of land, and became
an Indian trader. He
was one of the members of the first Ohio
company together with
Colonel George Mason and General
Washington, which company
made the first English settlement at
Pittsburg before Braddock's
defeat, and it was through his means and
efforts that the first
path was traced through that vast chain
of mountains called the
Alleghenies. Colonel Cresap, with the
assistance of a friendly
Indian named Nemacolin, surveyed a road
from Cumberland to
Pittsburg. It was this road that General
Braddock used with
his army, and it was afterwards known as
Braddock's road which
does not materially differ from the
present National Road.
It was this first Ohio company that had
the promise from
the king of Great Britain, of a grant of
five hundred thousand
acres of land on the Ohio, and this land
was actually surveyed
296
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
in 1775, but the war of the
revolution prevented the consumma-
tion of the title.
Thomas Cresap was Colonel of the
Provincials from 1730
to 1770. Most of this time he remained
friendly with the In-
dians, so much so that they called him
the Big Spoon as he in-
variably set out for them when they
passed his way, a kettle of
soup. His house was built like a fort
surrounded by a stockade.
This proved to be a wise move, as in
October, 1755, the Indians
went on the war path, and Governor Sharp
ordered out the
militia to assemble at Colonel Cresap's.
Again in July, 1763, the
Colonel wrote a letter to Governor
Sharp, stating that his fort
was filled with distressed families who
had fled to him for safety,
and they were in hourly danger of being
butchered unless re-
lief was afforded.
In October, 1765, when the Provincial
Assembly adopted
resolutions against the Stamp Act, the
Sons of Liberty were or-
ganized under the leadership of Colonel
Cresap, who was also
a member of the House of Burgesses.
General Washington, in
his diary, speaks of having stopped all
night at Colonel Cresap's
when he visited the Ohio country.
The Colonel's youngest child was Michael,
born in 1742,
and educated at Baltimore. He had much
experience in border
warfare, also had absorbed from his
father a military training,
but he chose to become a merchant,
opening a store at Red Stone,
Old Fort, now Brownsville, Pa. In the
spring of 1774 he be-
came interested with several gentlemen
in lands on the Ohio
River, and with a few associates he
established a camp at what
is now Long Reach, Tyler County, West
Virginia.
At this time Ebenezer Zane had a party
of surveyors at the
mouth of Big Sandy River. George Rogers
Clark was with a
party numbering ninety at the mouth of
the Little Kanawha. The
Indians beheld their fate at the
occupation by white men of their
hunting grounds. Three prospectors for
land near the mouth of
Lawrence Creek, now in Mason County,
Kentucky, were taken
prisoners by a band of Shawnees. A
little later a party of sur-
veyors in Kentucky nearly opposite the
mouth of the Scioto
River, killed several Shawnee warriors.
An engagement also
occurred with the Indians near the mouth
of the Little Kanawha,
Dedication of the Logan Elm. 297
and these men joined Cresap's men, and
all proceeded up the
Ohio to Wheeling. George Rogers Clark
states in his letter to
Doctor Samuel Brown, that they knew
Michael Cresap was on
the river fifteen miles above them
engaged in settling a new
plantation. Cresap was sent for and
unanimously chosen to
head the party to destroy the Indian
towns on the opposite side
of the river, but to their astonishment
their captain was a per-
son to dissuade them from the
enterprise, remarking that while
appearances were suspicious, there was
no certainty of war.
They, however, went on to Wheeling in a
body under Captain
Cresap, and there on the 21st of April,
Cresap received a letter
from John Connolly, of an inflammatory
nature, announcing that
the war had begun. Connolly was then at
Pittsburg as agent of
Lord Dunmore, Governor of Virginia. He
called himself the
Royal Commandant of the district of West
Augusta. Cresap
called a meeting on the 26th, reading
Connolly's letter, when the
white men voiced a declaration of war
against the Indians. The
following day two canoes were pursued by
Cresap's party to the
mouth of Pipe Creek, about fifteen miles
below Wheeling, where
a battle ensued in which three Indians
were killed and three
whites wounded. The next day, the 28th,
Captain Cresap started
on his return trip to Red Stone, Old
Fort. This is certified to
by Doctor Wheeler, a prominent citizen
of Wheeling.
Logan's brother and sister were killed
April 30th,* by Daniel
Greathouse, and two men associated with
him by the name of
Tomlinson and Sappington, at the home of
one Joshua Baker,
who kept a house of entertainment and
sold rum, the location be-
ing on the West Virginia side opposite
the mouth of Yellow
Creek.
Lord Dunmore sent a Captain's commission
to Michael
Cresap, dated June 10th, 1774. Many
petitions had come to
* Valentine Crawford in a letter to
General Washington, now on
file in the State Department,
Washington, dated May 7th, 1774, refers
to the date as Saturday last, which the
almanac of 1774 makes April
30th. Crawford, who was Washington's
land agent, in this letter says
"and on Saturday last about twelve
o'clock there was one Greathouse and
about twenty men fell on a party of
Indians at the mouth of Yellow
Creek and killed ten of them, and
brought away one child a prisoner."
298
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
Cresap from various sections of the
frontier to come to their aid.
He, therefore, accepted, and raised a
company, joining Major
Angus McDonald's command, and marched
with them to attack
the Indians at Waccatomica, on the
Muskingum, which was only
partially successful, and Captain Cresap
again returned to his
store at Red Stone, but again he was not
permitted to remain
long, for by the last of August Dunmore
had organized his ex-
pedition against the Ohio Shawnees,
having failed to bring about
a peace understanding between the
Cornstalk Confederacy and
the Virginians. A flotilla of one
hundred canoes and other
boats holding seven hundred men,
descended the Ohio with
George Rogers Clark, Michael Cresap,
Simon Kenton and
Simon Girty as scouts and guides moved
down the river
to the mouth of the Hock Hocking. They
were headed
directly for the Pickaway Plains. Lord Dunmore had or-
dered General Lewis, who had just closed
his battle at
Point Pleasant, to meet him. Dunmore
with his army had
advanced within four miles of the
Shawnee town when he
received a proposition for peace from
the chiefs, and a peace
conference was held and consummated,
known as the Dunmore
Treaty. Logan did not attend, and he was
sent for by Lord
Dunmore. John Gibson, the husband of
Logan's murdered sis-
ter, probably figured closer in
connection with Logan's alleged
speech than any other one man. On the
4th day of April, 1800,
at Pittsburg, Gibson made oath that the
speech was delivered
nearly as related by Mr. Jefferson in his notes on Virginia,
but
that he told Logan it was not Colonel
Cresap who had murdered
his relations, and that although his
son, Captain Michael Cresap,
who was with the party who had killed a
Shawnee chief a few
days before, yet he was not present when
his relations were
killed at Baker's. Benjamin Tomlinson,
heretofore referred to,
makes his statement at Cumberland, April
17th, 1797, to the
effect that Logan's brother was killed
by Sappington; that neither
Captain Michael Cresap nor any person of
that name was there
nor anywhere in that vicinity. He
further states he was at the
Treaty, and heard the Logan speech read
three times, twice by
Dunmore and once by Gibson; that he was
Officer of the Guard,
and stood near Dunmore's person,
consequently, heard and saw
Dedication of the Logan Elm. 299 all that passed. He states that Simon Girty went to Logan's cabin two days before the Treaty, and on the day the circle was formed, upon Girty's return, he saw John Gibson get up and go out of the circle, and talk with Girty after which he, Gibson, went into the tent, and soon after returning into the circle, drew |
|
out of his pocket a piece of clean, new paper on which was writ- ten in his own hand-writing, a speech for and in the name of Logan. Greathouse died of the measles in 1775. The remaining man of the trio, John Sappington, states that he knew Cresap was generally blamed for the murder, but he really had no hand in |
300
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.
it. Further, that he knew that Cresap
despised and hated the
Greathouses ever afterwards on account
of it. Samuel McKee, a
Justice of the Peace, taking
Sappington's testimony, states that
he, Sappington, was the man who shot the
brother of Logan.
Referring again to George Rogers Clark.
He states that
he was intimate with Cresap, and better
acquainted with Logan
at that time than any other Indian in
the western country, and
had a knowledge of the conduct of both
parties; that Cresap
had decamped and taken the road to Red
Stone before the mur-
der at Baker's; that when the speech of
Logan was read at the
Treaty, the army knew that it was wrong
so far as it respected
Cresap and afforded an opportunity of
rallying that gentleman
on the subject. Clark discovered that
Cresap was displeased,
and told him he must be a very great
man; that the Indians
shouldered him with everything that had
happened. Cresap
smiled, says Clark, and remarked he had
a great mind to toma-
hawk Greathouse about the matter.
Bancroft, the historian, makes no
mention of Cresap in
connection with the Dunmore Treaty and
the speech of Logan.
Caleb Atwater, who once lived at
Circleville, states in his his-
tory that Logan was mistaken in charging
the murder to Michael
Cresap. Henry Howe exonerates Cresap.
Theodore Roosevelt
in his Winning of the West, does the
same thing, and our own
Randall and Ryan, in their History of
Ohio, prove an alibi for
Cresap.
You may ask how the speech of Logan
became so famous.
It was first published in the press of
the country, and but little
attention was paid to it. Thomas
Jefferson, in 1787, published
the first edition of his notes on
Virginia. He gave the speech
much prominence in his book. It was
copied into our school
books at home and translated into
several languages in Europe.
Jefferson had been a suitor for the hand
of Michael Cresap's
daughter, and had been rejected. She
afterwards married Luther
Martin, Attorney General of the state of
Maryland, and one of
the counsel for Aaron Burr. Jefferson
was a Democrat; Martin
was a Federalist, and became very much
incensed at Jefferson,
writing him several communications on
the subject of Cresap's
innocence of the charge. These letters
Jefferson ignored ex-
Dedication of the Logan Elm. 301
cept to write a letter to Governor
Henry, of Maryland, in 1797,
making feeble excuses for himself,
repeating the charges against
Cresap, promising, however, to do
justice to his memory in
case he found he was wrong. This
Jefferson failed to do in the
face of overwhelming proof, though he
lived until 1824.
I have heretofore referred to the
contents of a letter of
George Rogers Clark to Doctor Samuel
Brown which was dated
June 17, 1798. This letter was sent by
Doctor Brown, by express,
to Monticello, yet the edition of
Jefferson's notes of 1800, made
no mention of the Clark letter.* This
edition, however, pub-
lished the declaration of John
Sappington, Charles Polke, Harry
Innes, John Gibson and Ebenezer Zane,
all of which exonerated
Cresap.
Again Captain Michael Cresap was not
allowed to remain
at home very long, for in 1775 the
following year he was placed
in command of one of the companies of
the Sons of Liberty,
and marched at their head to Boston,
after the Battle of Bunker
Hill, where he received another
commission, but this time it was
a Colonel's. The trip was made in
twenty-two days, the men
subsisting upon the fruits of their
rifles. In October of this year
Michael Cresap was detailed to go to New
York City where he
was taken with a fever and died. He was
buried with military
honors in Trinity Church Yard. When you
are walking down
Broadway, go in the open gate and turn
to the right. Just op-
posite the north transept door you will
find this hero's grave
next to the walk, and if your experience
should be like all of
mine, you will find fresh flowers upon
the monument.
The Cresap descendants, now scattered
from ocean to ocean
over this broad land, desire to extend
their thanks to the Ohio
Archaeological and Historical Society
for this opportunity in
protecting the fair name of a brave
soldier who died to save this
country from Britsh rule; they believe
the present generation
is not moved by affairs of the heart or
by political preferences
to the extent that history is perverted.
They do not blame poor
Logan, who inspired the message, as he
doubtless did not expect
* This letter together with one of
Doctor Brown of September 4th,
1798, transmitting it to Mr. Jefferson
are on file with the Jefferson papers
in the Department of State, Washington.
302
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society
Publications.
it to go beyond what is now the confines
of Pickaway Township.
Further, the Cresaps of the present are
of the opinion that Logan
should have been consistent with the
words of his message, by
his attendance at the Treaty when only
six miles distant, not-
withstanding his threatening note of
July, 1774, to Captain
Michael Cresap tied to a War Club, and
left in the house of
Roberts after Logan had massacred the
family. Also Logan
was inconsistent again in appealing for
sympathy for the killing
of his brother, when eight years
thereafter he is recorded as
murdering his own wife.
The Cresap blood has followed the flag
wherever it has
floated. Captain Michael took to Boston,
as members of his
company, his nephews of Michael Cresap,
Jr., Daniel Cresap, Jr.,
and Joseph Cresap. It flowed on the
"Essex" upon the sea; it
was with Grant at Vicksburg, Shiloh and
Appomattox, and with
Sherman to the sea. The old Colonel's
love of the cause of
liberty flowed on even to the seventh
generation, for up San
Juan hill was heard the voice of Jules
Gansche Ord, son of Gen-
eral Edward Otho Cresap Ord. "All
who are brave follow me",
just before that voice was stilled
forever.
Hon. Chase Stewart, the original
legislator to introduce laws
in the Ohio General Assembly for the
purchase of historic
grounds, was called upon and gave an
address upon Historic
Tree.
ADDRESS OF HON. CHASE STEWART.
The large attendance here this beautiful
October day is
evidence of the fact that the people of
Pickaway and Ross Coun-
ties are not indifferent to the
importance and significance of
this occasion for they all seem to be
present.
The preservation of this historic spot
is assured by the ac-
ceptance on the part of the Ohio State
Archaeological and His-
torical Society of the deed delivered
today. The tract of ground
conveyed includes the magnificent old
elm whose generous shade
we are now enjoying.
Several centuries have passed since its
growth began and
for one hundred and thirty-eight years
it has stood as a faithful
sentinel over the spot which is given
marked distinction because