Captain John 'Tachnachdours' Logan

Cayuga/Turtle Clan
Tachnachdours "Spreading Oak"
Brother of Chief James (Tah-Gah-Jute) Logan

"W. Ray Metz in his article, 'The History Of this Territory Prior To 1846, in the book, Blair County's First Hundred Years 1846-1946, provided the following information on the Logans. Captain (John) Logan was of the Cayuga tribe and was educated by Moravian missionaries. He inherited the "vice-regency of the Iroquois (Mingoes)" when his father, Shikellemus, died on 06 December, 1784. He was blind in one eye and therefore was disqualified from joining the council of chiefs. John Logan was married around the year 1738 to a Shawnee "half-breed" named Vastina, who bore him six children. In 1747 Vastina and five of the children died from a plague. The surviving child, called "Little Logan" took up residence in the Seneca Reservation at Cold Spring on the Allegheny River. Captain Logan resided, after the close of the Revolutionary War, on property owned by the Bell family, at (as Mr. Metz put it) "Tuckahoe". Tuckahoe is a name given to the northern end of Logan Valley at an early time. It is not clarified in Mr. Metz's article whether Logan's residence at "Tuckahoe" was near Logan's Spring in Antis Township or the Big Spring at Tyrone. Logan left this area to reside with his son at Cold Spring, but he came back from time to time to visit with his friends here. He died in 1820 at the age of one hundred years."

----------------------------------
https://www.loc.gov/resource/dcmsiabooks.captainloganblai00shoe/?st...

Title Captain Logan, Blair County's Indian chief; a biography, Contributor Names Shoemaker, Henry W., 1880-1958. Created / Published Altoona, Pa., Altoona Tribune Publishing Company, 1915. Subject Headings - Logan, John,--Capt., Cayuga Chief,--1718-1820 Notes - Also available in digital form. Medium 2 p. l., 3-40 p. plates, ports. 20 cm. Call Number/Physical Location E90.L82 S55 Digital Id http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gdc/scd0001.00135639461 dcmsiabooks.captainloganblai00shoe Library of Congress Control Number 15025486

-------------------------------

John or James Logan?

Chief Shikellamy’s firstborn son was Tachnechdours, born about 1720; his second was born around 1725 and was named Tah-Gah-Jute. Most historians who have studied this family know that Shikellamy named his son James Logan in honor of his good friend, Secretary of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania. There is considerable confusion as to which one is Logan. The answer seems to be, both.

A land warrant in the Bureau of Land Records, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, places Tachnechdours “James Logan” further east at the time. It was issued on September 17, 1773, for George Ballard, and describes his tract of 300 acres in these words: " . . . situate on the East side of the North East Branch of Susquehanna about 3 or 4 Miles back of where James Logan was living in the vicinity of his father Shikellamy's old home near Shamokin (now Sunbury, Pennsylvania)." ("Logan the Mingo; A problem in Identification," Repr., Pennsylvania Archeologist Bulletin XXXII, December 1962, p 92); (Ronald R. Wenning, “Chief Logan: Friend, Foe, or Fiction?” The Journal of the Lycoming County Historical Society, Volume XXXVII, Number 1, Fall, 1997)

Logan’s Lament, and his Captain John Logan letter, 1774, fixes Tah-Gah-Jute “John Logan” as living along the Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Ohio border. (Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, John Stockdale publisher, London, 1787, in Query Vi:, pp 68-69); (Thomas Jefferson, Relative to the murder of Logan’s family, Samuel H. Smith, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1800, see Robinson declaration)

------------------------------

links

https://www.heritage-history.com/index.php?c=read&author=sabin&book...
http://www.friendsofthefrontier.org/page/Chief-Logan.aspx
http://genealogytrails.com/ohio/hocking/chieflogan.html
https://www.wvpublic.org/radio/2019-04-30/april-30-1774-family-of-c...
https://nativeheritageproject.com/2014/01/26/logans-lament/
(Scholars agree that Logan was a son of Shikellamy, an important diplomat for the Iroquois Confederacy, but which son has been disputed by scholars. Logan the orator has been variously identified as Tah-gah-jute, Tachnechdorus (also spelled “Tachnedorus” and “Taghneghdoarus”), Soyechtowa, Tocanioadorogon, the “Great Mingo”, James Logan, and John Logan.)
http://www.bellwoodantis.net/cptlgn.html
(In Col. Henry W. Shoemaker’s biography of Captain Logan we learn that the old famous Shikellemus, vice-regent of the powerful Iroquois nation had two sons, John the first son and James the second. James it was who cut a path of gory history across the Ohio valley and besmirched the Logan name. John, the elder brother was a firm follower of the ideas of his noble and sagacious father Shikellemus. John, or Tachmachdoarus, “Spreading Oak” was the character, who although much persecuted by his people as well as the whites, never lost his regard for the white people and lived a type of life that may well have been copied by the earlier whites. He served with distinction under Washington during the Revolutionary War and in many other respects proved his loyalty to the white people.)

• https://www.motherbedford.com/Indian8.htm?fbclid=IwAR1nuoy4z3Gh5Rlh...