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Notable people · Native Leader

Logan (Tahgahjute)

Mingo leader, son of Shickellamy, whose 1774 words after the Yellow Creek killings of his family became famous as 'Logan's Lament'. The Logan Elm near Circleville commemorates the Dunmore treaty council.

At a glance

Born
1725
Died
1780
Known as
Native Leader

Life story

Logan was a Cayuga-born war leader and orator, son of the Oneida diplomat Shikellamy, who came to the Ohio Country in the 1760s and joined the Mingo, a mixed community of displaced Iroquois-affiliated peoples. Wikipedia dates his birth around 1723.

On April 30, 1774, settlers killed members of his family at Yellow Creek. He led revenge raids that helped set off Dunmore's War.

His speech, called Logan's Lament, was reported in the Virginia Gazette in 1775 and made famous when Thomas Jefferson printed it in Notes on the State of Virginia. Tradition places its delivery under the elm near Circleville; scholars question how the words reached the record.

He was reportedly killed by a nephew near Lake Erie in 1780. The Logan Elm memorial, the city of Logan, a high school and a West Virginia state park carry his name.

Timeline

  • 1723: Born (about) (New York area) source
  • 1760s: Moves to the Ohio Country (Ohio Country) source
  • 1774-04-30: Yellow Creek killings of his kin (Ohio River, near Wellsburg, WV) source
  • 1774: Revenge raids begin Dunmore's War (Virginia frontier) source
  • 1775: His speech is published (Williamsburg, VA) source
  • 1780: Killed, reportedly by his nephew (near Lake Erie) source

What Logan is known for

  • 'Logan's Lament' speech, 1774

Honors and things named for them

  • Logan Elm State Memorial, OH
  • City of Logan, OH
  • Logan Elm High School, Circleville, OH
  • Chief Logan State Park, WV

Family

  • father: Shikellamy
  • mother: Neanoma
  • brother: John Petty

Places in Ohio to see

Ohio places

Where Logan (Tahgahjute) was born, lived, worked and is remembered, with the ZIP code, town and county pages for each.

In their words

I appeal to any white man to say, if ever he entered Logan's cabin hungry, and he gave him not meat

Myths and corrections

  • Logan is often called a Mingo 'chief'; the source says he was a war leader, not technically a chief.
  • The name Tah-gah-jute is disputed; Jennings argued his name was James Logan or Soyechtowa.
  • Whether the lament was spoken at the Logan Elm is local tradition, and the wording came through Dunmore's men.
  • Disputed: His birth year is given as about 1723 by Wikipedia and about 1725 by other accounts.

Further reading

Sources

Confidence. Medium: the main facts were confirmed, but some details (often an address or ZIP code) were not.

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