Location 40.622942, -80.226675
The original village was settled by Shawnees, possibly as early as 1725, on low-lying land on the north bank of the Ohio River, near present-day Ambridge, Pennsylvania, Beaver County, Pennsylvania[1]. In the rich soil by the riverside, the Shawnees cultivated maize. Founded by Shawnee chief Kakowatchiky.
As part of their effort to claim the Ohio Valley, around 1747, the French built about 30 log cabins, some with stone chimneys, on a plateau above the original Logstown village[1]. The French turned over the cabins to the Native Americans. Only 18 miles downriver from present-day Pittsburgh, Logstown predated the French fort there, Fort Duquesne, by at least seven years. Logstown, therefore, became an important trade and council site for the French and Native Americans, as well as, ironically, the British.
In 1747, the Iroquois sent two headmen: Tanacharison, a Seneca, and Scarouady, an Oneida, as emissaries to live in Logstown. Tanacharison sided with the British in the coming war[2].
In 1748, the colony of Pennsylvania sent Conrad Weiser, Pennsylvania's ambassador to the Six Nations, to Logstown. He held council with a gathering of chiefs, who complied with his request for a count of their warriors in the Ohio Valley region[1]:
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
In 1749, the French marked their claim of the watersheds of the Allegheny River and the Ohio River. The governor of New France sent a force of 300 men, led by Celeron de Bienville, down the Allegheny and Ohio. Along the way, Celeron nailed copper plates bearing royal arms to trees, and buried inscribed leaden plates at the mouths of principal tributaries. When Celeron arrived at Logstown, he discovered some English traders there. Incensed, he evicted the traders and wrote a scolding note to the governor of Pennsylvania[3]. He then hectored the Native Americans about French dominance of the region. The expulsion of the British traders and the hectoring offended the Iroquois, some of whom returned to their homeland, tearing down the French copper plates as they went.
In 1752, a treaty was held at Logstown with representatives of the Iroquois (Six Nations), Lenape, and Shawnee tribes. Colonel Joshua Fry and two other commissioners represented the colony of Virginia, and Christopher Gist represented the Ohio Company[1]. The Iroquois "half-King" or sachem, Tanacharison, declared that his people did not consider that the 1744 Anglo-Iroquois Treaty of Lancaster had ceded the colonists any land beyond the Allegheny Mountains, but he promised the Iroquois would not molest any English settlements southeast of the Ohio River. He also formally requested that an English fort be built at the mouth of the Monongahela River, the site of present-day Pittsburgh. (This fort, Fort Prince George, was still in construction in January 1754 when it was razed by a much larger French force, which then built Fort Duquesne in the same spot.)
In 1753, Virginia Governor Dinwiddie sent an eight-man mission headed by a young George Washington to warn the French away from the Ohio Valley. From November 24 to 30, Washington held council with Tanacharison and Scarouady at Logstown.
The historical marker at or near the former site of Logstown (1725-1758).
On May 28, 1754, in Battle of Jumonville Glen, Tanacharison killed Ensign Joseph Coulon de Jumonville, an act that helped to precipitate the French and Indian War. Following Washington's surrender at Fort Necessity, Scarouady burned down Logstown, on or about June 24, 1754. French forces under Louis Coulon de Villiers rebuilt the village[1].
In the 1750s, New France built Fort Presque Isle on Lake Erie, Fort Le Boeuf on French Creek, Pennsylvania, Fort Machault near the junction of French Creek with the Allegheny River, and finally Fort Duquesne, at the forks of the Ohio.
When the army of General John Forbes occupied Fort Duquesne on November 24, 1758, the Native Americans abandoned many of their neighboring villages. With the construction of Fort Pitt, Logstown lost its prominence.
When Major George Washington again visited the site of Logstown on October 21, 1770, none of the residents were Native American.
