| Major George Washington On his mission to Fort LeBoeuf (present Waterford, Pennsylvania), a twenty-one year-old George Washington, traveled to Logs Town and stayed from November 24-30, 1753. He stopped at the village to meet with the Indians and see where they stood with the French. Chief Tanacharison was at his hunting camp when Washington arrived and a runner was sent to ask him to return to Logs Town. Washington’s mission was to inform the French that England claimed the Ohio Valley. The French ignored the warnings and established Fort Duquesne at the forks of the Ohio River, and proclaimed the Ohio Country in the name of France. With the French now in control of the territory from Lake Erie to what is now Pittsburgh, war was inevitable. Fort Duquesne, situated at the strategic forks of the Ohio River, was the seat of French power. In 1754, Logs Town was abandoned and burned by the English allied Indians. That fall, the French commander at Fort Duquesne sent a working party to rebuild Logs Town on a hill overlooking the old town for the pro-French Indians. The new town consisted of thirty log cabins with stone chimneys. Indian attacks were unleashed all across the English frontier, many originating from the newly built Logs Town and led by French officers and men. In 1758, the French burned and abandoned Fort Duquesne and evacuated the area. Logs Town was abandoned for the last time and was never re-built. However, during Pontiac’s Rebellion in 1763, the site served as a staging ground for some Indian attacks against Fort Pitt and the British frontier. |
LOGS TOWN
| Logs Town In the late 1720s, members of the Delaware and Shawnee tribes began migrating from their homes along the Eastern Seaboard and established the village of Logs town on a narrow plain on the east side of the Ohio River in present Harmony Township, Pennsylvania. The town was known to the English as “Logs town,” and by the French as “Chiningue,” (pronounced Shenango). At the time, the principle inhabitants of the village were Delaware, Shawnee, Wyandot and the remains of various other displaced tribes. By the late 1740’s, Logstown became an important village and fur-trading center in the region, and trading posts were established there by the English and later French traders. The village of Logs Town got its name because it was located near a low lying swale along the Ohio River, which would be covered in wood and debris after high water. Thus the name was where the logs are or Logs Town. In 1749, French Captain Celoron de Bienville stopped at Logs Town on a military expedition claiming the Ohio Country for the French. Father Joseph Bonnecamps accompanied the expedition and kept a fascinating journal of the trip, which provided invaluable information on the many villages and their inhabitants. Bonnecamps put the number of Indian cabins located at Logs Town at eighty, a large settlement at the time. He is also credited with holding the first Catholic mass within the confines of what was to become Beaver County. |
