Logstown

"extensive flats"
, settlement_type = Historic Native American village
, image_skyline = Image:Logstown1.jpg
, imagesize = 220px
, image_alt =
, image_map1 = Pennsylvania in United States (US48).svg
, mapsize1 =
, map_alt1 =
, map_caption1 = Location of Pennsylvania in the United States
, image_caption = The stone marker at or near the former site of Logstown (1725-1758)
, nickname =
, coordinates =
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 1725-1727
, established_title2 = Demolished
, established_date2 = June, 1754
, established_title3 = Rebuilt
, established_date3 = 1755-58
, population_total =
, population_est = 200-500
, pop_est_as_of = 1754
, subdivision_type = State
, subdivision_name = Pennsylvania
, subdivision_type1 = Present-day Community
, subdivision_name1 = Harmony Township, Beaver County, Pennsylvania
, subdivision_type2 =
, subdivision_name2 =
, image_map = Beaver County Pennsylvania incorporated and unincorporated areas Harmony township highlighted.svg
, map_caption = Location in Beaver County and state of Pennsylvania
, website =

The riverside village of Logstown (1725?, 1727–1758) also known as Logg's Town, French: ''Chiningue''Charles Augustus Hanna, ''The Wilderness Trail: Or, The Ventures and Adventures of the Pennsylvania Traders on the Allegheny Path,'' Volume 1, Putnam's sons, 1911
/ref> (transliterated to ''Shenango'') near modern-day Baden, Pennsylvania, was a significant Native American settlement in Western Pennsylvania and the site of the 1752 signing of the Treaty of Logstown between the Ohio Company, the Colony of Virginia, and the Six Nations, which occupied the region. Being an unusually large settlement, and because of its strategic location in the Ohio Country, an area contested by France and England, Logstown was an important community for all parties living along the Ohio and tributary rivers. Logstown was a prominent trade and council site for the contending British and French colonial governments, both of which made abortive plans to construct forts near the town.Richard White, ''The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650–1815'' Cambridge studies in North American Indian history, Cambridge University Press, 1991.
Logstown was burned in 1754 and although it was rebuilt, in the years following the French and Indian War it became depopulated and was eventually abandoned.

Location

Logstown is located in Harmony Township, about 14 miles northwest of the Forks of the Ohio (now in downtown Pittsburgh) in an area on the east bank of the Ohio River opposite Aliquippa. The site is also due north of the Pittsburgh International Airport. Today the site is marked with a stone bearing a brass plaque placed there by the Fort McIntosh chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1932, memorializing the visit of Major George Washington to the town in November, 1753.National Park Service, "Reconnaissance Survey, The Washington Trail 1753," Park Planning and Special Studies, Northeast Region. US Dept. of the Interior, August 2019
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Etymology

A few sources claim that in 1747 the French built about 30 log cabins, some with stone chimneys, on a plateau above the original Logstown village, and that these log cabins supposedly gave the town its name. However, George P. Donehoo says that the name "was probably due to the fact that large numbers of logs were left upon the flat after the floods in the Ohio River."Donehoo, George P. ''A History of the Indian Villages and Place Names in Pennsylvania.'' Papamoa Press, 2019.
/ref>George P. Donehoo, "A Few Facts in the History of Logstown," ''The Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine,'' vol. 1, no. 1, Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania., 1918. Pp 259-264
/ref>

Donehoo and several other sources report that the original Lenape name of the village was ''Maughwawame,''Thwaites, Reuben Gold. ''The French Regime in Wisconsin and the Northwest,'' Vol I 1634-1760. State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1908
/ref> which translates to "extensive flats."

The French referred to the town as "Chiningue" which Father Joseph Pierre de Bonnecamps notes was their designation and not a Native name: "We called it Chiningue, from its vicinity to a river of that name." Donehoo says that ''chiningue'' is a French word for beaver, but also suggests that it may be a corruption of ''ochenango,'' a Seneca word meaning "large bull thistles."

Early history

The original village was settled by Shawnees, possibly as early as 1725Chester Hale Sipe, "The Principal Indian Towns of Western Pennsylvania," ''Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine,'' v. 13, no. 2; April 1, 1930; pp. 104-122
/ref> or 1730Chester Hale Sipe, ''The Indian chiefs of Pennsylvania, or, A story of the part played by the American Indian in the history of Pennsylvania: based primarily on the Pennsylvania archives and colonial records, and built around the outstanding chiefs,'' Butler, Pa.: Ziegler Print. Co., Inc., 1927
/ref> on low-lying land less than a mile north of present-day Ambridge in Beaver County, Pennsylvania.Agnew, Daniel, "Logstown, on the Ohio: a historical sketch," originally published by Myers, Shinkle & Co., Pittsburgh, PA, 1894
/ref> The population grew as groups of Lenape, Cayugas, Senecas, and Shawnees migrated west into the Ohio River Valley seeking to escape a smallpox epidemic in 1733 and a drought in 1741, creating a multi-ethnic community.Richard S. Grimes, "The emergence and decline of the Delaware Indian nation in western Pennsylvania and the Ohio country, 1730--1795," Doctoral Dissertation, Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, West Virginia University, 2005
/ref> In August 1744 the town's population increased significantly when Kakowatcheky arrived with his band of Shawnee warriors and their families from Wyoming Valley, Pennsylvania. Kakowatcheky is sometimes credited with founding Logstown.John Heckewelder, ''History, Manners, and Customs of The Indian Nations who once Inhabited Pennsylvania and the Neighbouring States,'' Philadelphia: Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1881.
/ref> Another early resident was Opessa Straight Tail, who moved to Logstown some time before 1750.Stephen Warren, ''Worlds the Shawnees Made: Migration and Violence in Early America,'' UNC Press Books, 2014
The town's population varied from approximately 200 to 500 people. In 1749 Céloron de Blainville observed fifty cabins housing about sixty warriors, suggesting a population of 200 to 250 total, while in late 1758 George Croghan noted forty houses for about one hundred and twenty warriors, suggesting a total population of 350 to 500.

In late April 1745, the Pekowi Shawnee leader Peter Chartier and about 400 Shawnees, including Meshemethequater and Neucheconeh, stopped at Logstown to visit Kakowatcheky and to try to persuade him to join them. Chartier was angry with the Provincial government of Pennsylvania for their failure to control the sale of alcohol in Shawnee communities, and his plan at that time was to bring as many Shawnees as he could over to French protection. He was on his way to Lower Shawneetown to address the Shawnees living there. Kakowatcheky, however, refused to join him, and Chartier and his people left Logstown after a brief stay.

Most sources agree that the main section of the town was built on the broad, flat floodplain along the east bank of the Ohio River, with a few structures located on the west bank. Gardens and cornfields were planted on both sides of the river, on fertile, alluvial flatlands, where the town's residents cultivated maize, beans, squash, gourds, tobacco, and sunflowers. One source states that "in the year 1752...the Shawanese Inhabited Loggs Town, on the West Side of the Ohio, and tended Corn on the East Side of the River."Bausman, Joseph Henderson. ''History of Beaver County, Pennsylvania: And Its Centennial Celebration,'' vol. II. New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1904.
/ref> On the east bank of the river, a few homes were built on a grassy terrace above the floodplain, the so-called "upper town."James B. Richardson, Ronald C. Carlisle, ''Ohio River Environmental Assessment: Cultural Resources,'' Dept of Anthropology, Pittsburgh University PA, Oct 1977
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In 1747, the Six Nations Confederacy Haudenosaunee sent two headmen as emissaries to live in Logstown and supervise the Iroquois allies: Tanacharison,William A. Hunter, "Tanaghrisson," in ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography,'' vol. 3, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed March 15, 2021
/ref> a Seneca, and Scarouady, an Oneida.Sipe, C. Hale, ''The Indian Wars of Pennsylvania,'' 1929, Telegraph Press, Harrisburg.
/ref> Tanacharison oversaw the Delawares and Scarouady supervised the Shawnees.

Visit by George Croghan, 1748

The provincial government of Pennsylvania was anxious to keep Native Americans in the Ohio Valley from being influenced by the French. As early as 1731, agents from Montreal had visited communities along the Ohio River, distributing goods and urging the tribes to send emissaries to Quebec to establish alliances. On September 18, 1747, George Croghan wrote to Thomas Lawrence in Philadelphia, a member of the Pennsylvania Provincial Council, that one of his men, who had just come "down from ye Woods," had informed him that "the Indians at this side of the Lake Erie are making war very briskly against the French, but is very impatient to hear from their brothers, ye English, expecting a present of powder and lead; which, if they don't get, I am of opinion, by the best accounts, that they will turn to the French." In November 1747 Scarouady and other Iroquois leaders visited Philadelphia to sign the "Treaty Between the President and Council of the Province of Pennsylvania and the Ohio Indians," promising a military alliance against the French in exchange for supplies and trade goods. The Council obtained £200 worth of goods and sent Croghan to Logstown in April, 1748 to cement the terms of the treaty and secure the tribes' loyalty to the British. Conrad Weiser was to follow in August with more gifts. Croghan met in council with 1500 men at Logstown, and finding the Council's gifts insufficient for all of them, he added an additional £224 in powder, lead, knives, flints, brass wire, and tobacco from his own stock. This gesture was influential in maintaining the alliance between the British and the Ohio tribes.Volwiler, Albert T. ''George Croghan and the Westward Movement, 1741–1782.'' Cleveland: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1926
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In late July, fifty-five representatives of the Six Nations, Delawares, Shawnees, Nanticokes, and Twightwees met at the courthouse in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and signed a peace treaty with the Pennsylvania Provincial Council. This treaty guaranteed commercial access to tribes across the Ohio Valley as far west as the Wabash River, an unprecedented diplomatic achievement for the English.Joseph Solomon Walton, 1900, ''Conrad Weiser and the Indian Policy of Colonial Pennsylvania'' Philadelphia: G.W. Jacobs & Co., 1900
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Visit by Conrad Weiser, 1748

In 1748, the colony of Pennsylvania sent Conrad Weiser, Pennsylvania's ambassador to the Six Nations, to Logstown.Michael N. McConnell, "Kuskusky Towns and Early Western Pennsylvania Indian History, 1748-1778," ''Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography,'' vol. 116, no. 1; January 1, 1992: pp 33-58
/ref> Arriving on August 27, he set up his headquarters in Croghan's trading post and visited the surrounding villages.''Colonial Records: Minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania from the organization to the termination of the proprietary government. v. 11-16 Minutes of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania from its organization to the termination of the revolution.'' Harrisburg: Theo. Fenn & Company, 1851.
/ref> Soon a large number of Delaware, Shawnee, Iroquois and Wyandot Indians gathered at Logstown,Shannon, Timothy John. ''Iroquois Diplomacy on the Early American Frontier.'' Viking, 2008.
/ref> including the Wyandot chief Orontony and five other leaders from Kuskusky, who "behav’d like People of good Sense & Sincerity." Weiser met each tribe separately and then in a general council he announced that King George's War had ended and that England and France signed a peace treaty. As a result, the English had no more war supplies for them and he distributed gifts instead. The chiefs complied with his request for a count of their warriors in the Ohio Valley region:

* Iroquois, or Six Nations:
** Senecas: 163
** Onondagas: 35
** Oneidas: 15
** Cayugas: 20
** Mohawks: 74
* Allies of Iroquois:
** Wyandots: 100
* Others:
** Shawnees: 162
** Tisagechroamis: 40
** Mohicans: 15
** Lenape (Delaware): 165
** Total : 789

Weiser was accompanied by "English traders, of whom there were above twenty," intending to formally establish trade with tribes represented at the council, to create a stronger relationship that would further exclude the French from operating in the region. During the council, a trader from Maryland named Nolan arrived with 30 gallons of rum and began to sell it to the Indians, much to the dismay of Weiser and Croghan, who were afraid that violence would erupt if the Indians drank too much. Several of the Logstown leaders were also unhappy, as they had petitioned the Pennsylvania provincial government as early as 1734 to restrict the sale of alcohol in Native American communities because of the social and economic problems it caused. Croghan eventually decided to break open the kegs and spill the rum, in accordance with a newly-enacted Pennsylvania statute issued by Lieutenant-Governor George Thomas.Samuel Hazard, ed. ''Minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania: From the Organization to the Termination of the Proprietary Government, Mar. 10, 1683-Sept. 27, 1775,'' Vol 4 of Colonial Records of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Provincial Council, Pennsylvania Committee of Safety; J. Severns, 1851.
/ref>

After the gifts had been distributed, the chiefs told Weiser and Croghan, "Our brethren the White Men have indeed tied our hearts to theirs. We at present can but return thanks with an empty hand till another opportunity serves to do it sufficiently...In the meantime, look upon us as your true brothers."

Among those accompanying Weiser was Benjamin Franklin's illegitimate son, William Franklin, only nineteen at the time, probably sent by his father as a part of his education. Franklin kept a journal of his trip which Lewis Evans used in making his 1749 map. William's journey subsequently inspired his father's keen interest in the frontier.

Visit by Céloron de Blainville, 1749

In 1749, the Comte de La Galissonière wanted to strengthen French control over the Ohio Country, and in August he ordered the military commander at Detroit, Pierre Joseph Céloron de Blainville to travel down the Ohio River to demonstrate French dominance. Leading a force of eight officers, six cadets, an armorer, 20 soldiers, 180 Canadians, 30 Iroquois and 25 Abenakis,O. H. Marshall, "De Celoron's Expedition to the Ohio in 1749, ''Magazine of American History,'' March, 1878, p. 146.
/ref> Céloron moved down the river on a flotilla of 23 large boats and birch-bark canoes, on his "lead plate expedition," burying lead plates at six locations where major tributaries entered the Ohio and nailing copper plates bearing royal arms to trees to claim the territory for New France.

Céloron arrived at Logstown on August 8, 1749. He regarded the town as an important point in his expedition, writing in his journal:

I made the men of my detachment brush themselves up as well as possible, so as to give them a better appearance, and I arranged everything...in good order, as I considered this one of the most considerable villages of the Beautiful River (the Ohio River)...When I was in sight of the village I discovered three French and one English flag...I had M. de Joncaire tell them to ...knock down the English lag or I would have it taken away myself. This was done immediately, a woman cut the pole and the flag has not been seen since...I fixed my camp securely near the village, and made it appear as strong as it was possible for me. I had body guards placed on the right and the left, I ordered sentinels to be placed at a short distance from each other, and bivouacked for the night.

The Jesuit priest Joseph Pierre de Bonnecamps, who accompanied Céloron, wrote about Logstown, which he called by its French name: "The village of Chiningué is quite new; it is hardly more than five or six years since it was established. The savages who live there are almost all Iroquois; they count about sixty warriors."Joseph Pierre de Bonnecamps, "Relation du voyage de la Belle Rivière faite en 1749, sous les ordres de M. de Céloron," in Reuben Gold Thwaites, ed., ''The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents,'' 73 vols. Cleveland: Burrow Brothers, 1896-1901, vol. 69
/ref>

Céloron reported that he was informed that warriors in Logstown had planned to attack his camp during the first night, but that his well-armed force, sentinels, and carefully planned encampment discouraged them from doing so. Later that evening "the Chiefs, accompanied by thirty or forty braves, came to salute me." They apologized for the English flag, saying that it had been put on display by some young men "for show...and without perceiving the consequences," adding that "our heart is entirely French."

Céloron described Logstown and its inhabitants briefly:

This village consists of fifty cabins, composed of Iroquois, Channanous, Loups and a part of the men of the villages I had passed, who had come to seek refuge there, and to render them stronger...Besides these three nations there are in this village Iroquois from the Sault St. Louis (Kahnawake), from the Lake of Two Mountains ( Mohawks of Kanesatake), and Indians from the Nepisiniques and the Abenakis, with Ontarios and other nations. This gathering forms a bad village, which is seduced by the allurements of cheap merchandise furnished by the English, which keeps them in very bad disposition towards us.

He discovered some British traders living in Logstown. Incensed, he warned them to leave this territory which belonged to France.A. Gwynn Henderson, "The Lower Shawnee Town on Ohio: Sustaining Native Autonomy in an Indian "Republic"." In Craig Thompson Friend, ed., ''The Buzzel about Kentuck: Settling the Promised Land'', University Press of Kentucky, 1999; pp. 25-56.
and wrote a scolding note to the governor of Pennsylvania, which stated in part:

I have been very much surprised to find some merchants of your government in this country, to which England has never had any pretensions. I have treated them with all possible mildness, though I had a right to look upon them as intruders and mere vagrants, their traffic being contrary to the preliminaries of the peace (Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748)), signed more than fifteen months ago. I hope, Sir, you will condescend to forbid this trade for the future, which is contrary to the treaties; and that you will warn your traders not to return into these territories; for, if so, they can only impute to themselves the evils which might befall them. I know that our Governor-General would be very sorry to have to resort to violent measures, but he has received positive orders not to allow foreign merchants or traders in his government.

During the night, Céloron was warned by Chabert de Joncaire that preparations were again being made in Logstown to attack the French camp, and he gave orders to his men to prepare for battle. He then sent Joncaire (who had lived in a Seneca village and spoke the language fluently)Severance, Frank Hayward, ''An old frontier of France: the Niagara region and adjacent lakes under French control,'' New York: Dodd, Mead, 1917. Publications of the Buffalo Historical Society v. 20-21
/ref> to advise the chiefs that the French were aware of their plans. Céloron writes that the warriors did not attack, but "filed before my camp and made the accustomed salute." Chiefs from the village visited the French camp the next day with pipes of peace, and Céloron reprimanded them for contemplating violence, adding: "I know how to make war, and those who have made war with us ought to know it, too."

The following day, 10 August 1749, Céloron delivered a prepared message from the Marquis de La Galissonière, the Governor of New France, which described how the English were deceiving the Ohio tribes and planning their "total ruin," adding: "I know the English only inspire you with evil sentiments, and, besides, intend, through their establishments on the Beautiful River, which belongs to me, to take it from me." The aged chief Kakowatcheky, listening in the audience, was apparently outraged. George Croghan, who arrived in Logstown a few days after Céloron had left, told Richard Peters that

Old Cackewatcheka was so exasperated at the Pride & Insolence of the French pretending to say that the Indian's land belonged to them that while he éloronwas in the midst of his Speech, the old King being blind and unable to stand without somebody to support him said in a low voice to those next to him, Why don't you shoot this French Fellow - Shoot him - shoot him.

Afterwards, Céloron called the English traders who were living in Logstown to meet with him, "to whom I addressed a summons to retire into their own territory with all their servants...They answered...that they would do so, that they knew well they had no right to trade on the Beautiful River." Bonnecamps wrote in his own diary:

The English there were 10 in number, and one among them was their chief. Monsieur de Céloron had him come, and ordered him, as he had done with the others, to return to his own country. The Englishman, who saw us ready to depart, acquiesced in all that was exacted from him, — firmly resolved, doubtless, to do nothing of the kind, as soon as our backs were turned.

Céloron then distributed gifts and departed from Logstown on 12 August, proceeding downriver to Lower Shawneetown. The expulsion of the British traders and Céloron's condescending attitude irritated the Shawnees, some of whom returned to their home villages, "tearing down and trampling underfoot with contempt" the French copper plates as they went."Theodore Calvin Pease and Ernestine Jenison, ''Illinois on the Eve of the Seven Years' War, 1747-1755.'' Springfield: Trustees of the State Historical Library, 1940. Illinois Historical Collections, volume XXIX.
/ref>

Governor James Hamilton sent George Croghan to Logstown as soon as they learned of Céloron's visit, to find out how the Indians had reacted to the French expedition. Croghan arrived in late August, only a few days after Céloron's departure, and reported that the Indians had told Céloron "that the land was their own, and while there were any Indians in those parts they would continue to trade with the English," adding that “to separate them from their brothers, the English, would be like cutting a man in two halves and then expecting him to live.”

Visit by Christopher Gist, 1750

In September, 1750 the Ohio Company ordered Christopher Gist to survey lands along the Ohio to find an area of 200,000 acres that the Company could take possession of, according to a 1749 grant from King George II of England. Gist was instructed to

Search out and discover the Lands upon the River Ohio, & other adjoining Branches of the Mississippi down as low as the great Falls thereof: You are particularly to observe the Ways & Passes thro all the Mountains you cross, & take an exact Account of the Soil, Quality, & Product of the Land, and the Wideness and Deepness of the Rivers, & the several Falls belonging to them, together with the Courses & Bearings of the Rivers & Mountains as near as you conveniently can: You are, also to observe what Nations of Indians inhabit there, their Strength & Numbers, who they trade with, & in what Comodities they deal.William M. Darlington, ed. ''Christopher Gist's Journals, with Historical, Geographical and Ethnological Notes and Biographies of His Contemporaries,'' Pittsburgh, J. R. Weldin & Co., 1893; Part 4: 1750-51
/ref>

Gist arrived in Logstown on 25 November, describing the path of the Ohio River as it appeared before reaching the town: "Down the River...to Loggs Town, the Lands these last 8 ilesvery rich, the Bottoms above a Mile wide, but on the SE side, scarce a Mile wide, the Hills high and steep. In the Loggs Town, I found scarce any Body but a Parcel of reprobate Indian Traders, the Chiefs of the Indians being out a hunting." In the town he found the people suspicious of his reasons for being there, as it was already clear to the Natives that the colonial governments were hoping to take possession of the land: "The People in this Town, began to enquire my Business, and because I did not readily inform them, they began to suspect me, and said, I was come to settle the Indian's Lands and they knew I should never go Home again safe." Gist invented a reason for his visit, that "I had a Message to deliver the Indians from the King, by Order of the President of Virginia," which "obtained me Quiet and Respect among them." Gist spent one night in the town and left the next day, observing the river downstream from the town: "The Bottoms upon the River below the Logg's Town very rich but narrow, the high Land pretty good but not very rich."

Visit by Chabert de Joncaire, 1750-51

After Céloron returned and reported his experiences, the new Governor-General of New France, the Marquis de la Jonquière, decided to send Philippe-Thomas Chabert de Joncaire back to Logstown to establish a permanent French base there. In early July 1750, Joncaire set out from Montreal with a staff of eight cadets and four soldiers, in addition to two Cayuga guides. They traveled with two canoes loaded with goods, including powder and shot, intended as gifts for the Indians and for trade. They proceeded down the Allegheny to Logstown, where Joncaire had orders to establish a trading-house, two stories high, its walls fitted with ''crénelés,'' ( loopholes) for defense. Joncaire was directed to explore the region, to learn all he could about the Monongahela River, to find a new route from southern Ohio to Lake Erie, to visit Lower Shawneetown and establish relations with the chiefs there, and finally, to report back to Céloron in Detroit.

Throughout September and October the Pennsylvania government received reports that a Frenchman named "Jean Coeur," or "John Ceur" was traveling up and down the Ohio River, distributing gifts and gaining influence with the Indians.

Croghan returned to Logstown again in November, 1750, to tend to his trading post there. He wrote to Governor James Hamilton on 16 November: "Yesterday, Andrew Montour and I got to this Town, where we found thirty warriors of the Six Nations...They told us that they saw John Coeur oncaireabout one hundred and fifty miles up this River at an Indian Town, where he intends to build a Fort if he can get liberty from the Ohio Indians. He has five canoes loaded with goods, and is very generous in making presents to all the chiefs of the Indians that he meets with."

Alarmed by these continued attempts of the French to maintain influence over the Ohio tribes, the Pennsylvania government purchased gifts and sent Croghan and Montour back to Logstown. They arrived on 18 May 1751, and were welcomed warmly. Two days after they arrived, "Mr. loncoeur and one Frenchman more" arrived, accompanied by forty Iroquois warriors. On 21 May Joncaire called a council with the leaders of Logstown, and Croghan was also there. Joncaire requested that the leaders respond to Céloron's speech of August, 1749, challenging them to end all trade relations with the English. In his letter to Governor Hamilton, Croghan noted, "To enforce that speech he gave them a very large belt of wampum,"Croghan, George, ''A selection of George Croghan's letters and journals relating to tours into the western country--November 16, 1750-November, 1765.'' Reuben Gold Thwaites, ed. Cleveland, Ohio: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1904
/ref> a symbol of the importance of his message.Jacobs, Wilbur R. "Wampum: The Protocol of Indian Diplomacy." ''The William and Mary Quarterly,'' vol 6, no. 4 (1949): 596-604. Accessed March 23, 2021. doi:10.2307/1916752.
/ref> Keeshequeatama, Speaker for the Six Nations, replied:

You desire we may turn our Brothers, the English, away, and not suffer them to come and trade with us again.
I now tell you from our hearts, we will not; for we ourselves brought them here to trade with us and they shall live amongst us as long as there is one of us alive. You are always threatening our Brothers what you will do to them, and in particular, to that man (pointing to George Croghan); now, if you have anything to say to our Brothers, tell it to him if you be a man, as you Frenchmen always say you are, and the Head of all Nations. Our Brothers are the people we will trade with, and not you.

He then returned the belt of wampum, symbolically rejecting the French challenge to end trade with the English.

On 25 May Croghan met with Joncaire, who apologized for urging the leaders of Logstown to end trade with the English, saying that he was following orders from the Governor of Canada, but added that "he was sure the French could not accomplish their designs with the Six Nations, without it could be done by force; which, he said, he believed they he Frenchwould find to be as difficult as the method they had just tried, and would meet with the like success."

At another meeting with the town's leaders on 28 May, the Speaker of the Six Nations addressed Joncaire directly, saying, "Is it not our land (stamping on the ground, and putting his finger to Joncair's nose)? What right has Onontio (the Governor of New France) to our lands? I desire you may go home directly off our lands and tell Onontio to send us word immediately what was his reason for using our Brothers so, or what he means by such proceedings, that we may know what to do; for I can assure Onontio that we, the Six Nations, will not take such usage."

On 4 June 1751 Joncaire wrote directly to Governor Hamilton from Logstown, in French, with a warning:

Monsieur the Marquis de La Jonquiere, Governor of the whole of New France, having honored me with his orders to watch that the English should make no treaty in the country of the Ohio, I have directed the traders of your government to withdraw. You cannot be ignorant, sir, that all the lands of this region have always belonged to the King of France, and that the English have no right to come there to trade. My superior has commanded me to apprise you of what I have done, in order that you might not affect ignorance of the reasons of it, and he has given me this order with so much the greater reason because it is now two years since Monsieur Céloron, by order of Monsieur de La Galissoniere, then Commandant General, warned many English who were trading with the Indians along the Ohio, against doing so, and they promised him not to return to trade on the lands, as Monsieur Céloron wrote to you.
:I have the honor to be, with great respect, Sir, Your very humble and obedient servant,
:Joncaire
:Lieutenant of a detachment of the Marine

Joncaire apparently abandoned the idea of constructing a blockhouse, and Governor Duquesne began preparations to send French and Canadian troupes de la marine to the south shore of Lake Erie, under the command of Paul Marin de la Malgue, to build a road and construct a series of forts (Fort Presque Isle, Fort Le Boeuf, Fort Machault), and later, Fort Duquesne.Kathleen Lugarich, "Constructing the French Forts of the Ohio Country," Fort Pitt Museum, October 9, 2015
/ref>

English attempts to build a fort at Logstown

The Ohio Iroquois had been reluctant to allow the English to build forts in the region. As early as March 23, 1731, Seneca chiefs sent a message to Governor Patrick Gordon: "It is urland but your people may trade there but not build Stone or Timber houses, but of Bark." Twenty years later, the English began working to obtain permission to build forts.

George Croghan was in Logstown in November, 1750 when the residents mentioned to him that Joncaire was exploring the idea of building a French fort nearby. In his letter of 16 November to Governor Hamilton, Croghan then adds: "We have seen but very few of the Chiefs of the Indians they being all out a hunting, but those we have seen are of opinion that their Brothers the English ought to have a Fort on this River to secure the Trade." Governor Hamilton was evidently anxious to pursue this opportunity, and wanted Croghan to obtain approval from the Logstown sachems for the construction of an English fort, but told Croghan that no official request to build a fort should be made. Instead, Croghan was instructed to find out how the Indians felt about having an English stronghold on the Ohio.Wainwright, Nicholas B. "An Indian Trade Failure: The Story of the Hockley, Trent and Croghan Company, 1748-1752." ''The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography,'' vol. 72, no. 4 (1948): 343-75. Accessed March 24, 2021
/ref>

On 29 May 1751, at a council meeting at Logstown between George Croghan, Andrew Montour and representatives of the Six Nations, Croghan reported the following statement from Iroquois speaker Toanahiso:

We expect that you our Brothers will build a Strong House on the River Ohio, that if we should be obliged to engage in a war that we should have a Place to secure our Wives and Children...Now, Brothers, we will take two months to consider and choose out a place fit for that Purpose, and then we will send You word. We hope Brothers that as soon as you receive our Message you will order such a House to be built. Brothers: that you may consider well the necessity of building such a Place of Security to strengthen our arms, and that this, our first request of that kind may have a good effect on your minds.

Governor Hamilton used this statement as evidence to the Pennsylvania Provincial Council that they should pay for the construction of a fort at a site selected by the sachems at Logstown, arguing that unless the fort were built, the English might lose not only Indian support, but control over the fur trade in Ohio. But Andrew Montour contradicted Croghan's account, stating that the Indians had never requested a fort but had only agreed to consider the idea. Montour doubted that they would allow a fort to be built near Logstown. As a result, the Provincial Council decided not to provide funding for a fort, arguing that fair dealings and occasional presents would hold the Indians as allies. At the Treaty of Logstown in June 1752, Tanacharison agreed to the construction of a fort upriver from Logstown, but his figurehead authority as half-king did not allow him to speak for the Onondaga Council. The following summer, Virginia's Ohio Company obtained permission from the Six Nations to build Fort Prince George, but construction did not begin until February of 1754.Cherry, Jason A. ''Pittsburgh's Lost Outpost: Captain Trent's Fort.'' Charleston, SC: HISTORY Press, 2019.
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Treaty of Logstown, 1752

In 1749 the British Crown awarded the Ohio Company a grant of 500,000 acres in the Ohio Country between the Monongahela and the Kanawha Rivers, provided that the company would settle 100 families within seven years. The Ohio Company was also required to construct a fort and provide a garrison to protect the settlement at their own expense. The Treaty of Logstown was intended to open up land for settlement so that the Ohio Company could meet the seven-year deadline, and to obtain explicit permission to construct a fort.

Between 1 and 13 June 1752, the British held a council at Logstown with representatives of the Six Nations, and the Lenape and Shawnee who had been tributary to them. Colonel Joshua Fry, James Patton, and Lunsford Lomax represented the Colony of Virginia, and Christopher Gist, Thomas Lee, William Trent, and William Beverley represented the Ohio Company."The Treaty of Logg's Town, 1752." ''Virginia Magazine of History and Biography,'' vol. 13, 1906; Pp 154–174.
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One of the main purposes of the Logstown treaty conference was to confirm the 1744 Lancaster Treaty in which the Six Nations supposedly gave up territory to Virginia, along the Ohio River on the southeast, as there was anxiety on the part of the colonial authorities as to whether the Indians were still willing to abide by the treaty. The Ohio Company and the Virginia commissioners also wanted the Ohio tribes to grant permission to build a fort at the forks of the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers and to allow new English settlements to be established on a half-million acres of unsettled land to the west and north of the Ohio River. The Company wanted to open trade with the Ohio Indians, which the French had forbidden. The Virginia and Pennsylvania delegates reminded the Delawares and Shawnees, "We advise and exhort you to beware of French Councils, and that you will adhere to a strict friendship with us (the English colonies and the Six Nations)."

At first, the Iroquois ''sachem'', Tanacharison (referred to in the treaty as "Thonariss, called by the English the half King"), reminded the Virginia officials that "the lands then sold y the Six Nations at Lancaster in 1744were to extend no further to the sunset estthan the hill on the other asternside of Allagany Hill," but he was eventually forced to cede Iroquois lands beyond the Alleghenies, granting access to the territory the colonial authorities wanted. The Virginia representatives also tried to pretend that Indians would still have access to these lands, stating in the treaty: "Be assur'd that the King, our Father, by purchasing your Lands, had never any Intention of takeing them from you, but that we might live together as one People, & keep them from the French, who wou'd be bad Neighbours."

After much urging from Andrew Montour, Tanacharison reluctantly agreed to allow a British fort to be built at the mouth of the Monongahela River,Michael N. McConnell, "Peoples ‘In Between’: The Iroquois and the Ohio Indians, 1720-1768,” in Daniel K. Richter and James H. Merrell, eds., ''Beyond the Covenant Chain: The Iroquois and Their Neighbors in Indian North America, 1600-1800,'' Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 1987
/ref> the site of present-day Pittsburgh.

At the conclusion of the Logstown conference, Tanacharison promised that existing settlements southeast of the Ohio River "shall be unmolested by us, and that we will, as far as in our power, assist and Protect the British Subjects there." In spite of Tanacharison's promises, the Ohio Indians did not agree to allow English settlements in the Ohio region, and Scarouady, the Oneida half king to the Shawnees, warned, "we he Ohio Indiansintend to keep our country clear of settlements." Tanacharison himself had regrets, and a year later he told the French "we live in a country in between he French and the English colonies therefore the land belongs to neither one nor t'other."

Technically, the treaty signed by the "Half-king" was not binding on the part of the Onondaga Council, although the colonial commissioners and the Ohio Company hoped that they would support the treaty, or at least agree to consider additional treaties in the coming months.

Appointment of Shingas as chief of the Lenape

Since the death of Sassoonan in 1747, the Lenape had been without an effective leader. Sassoonan had selected Pisquetomen

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