Townships History

Yellow Creek - Tarburner - Hollow Rock Run Steep in History

Long before our European immigrants arrived, where the waters of Yellow Creek empty into the Ohio River, Indians had already settled every hollow and ravine. These inhabitants can be traced back to the great leader, Logan. Logan’s mother was a Caygua Indian, and his father, Chief Shikellimus, a white Frenchman of great dignity.

Logan’s father served on the Iroquois council, when his son Logan was born in 1725. In 1742 this Indian tribe was converted to Christianity by Moravian Missionaries and later migrated to the Ohio River, settling in the Yellow Creek area. This Indian tribe was also known as the Mingoes and was a friendly, peace loving people.

Tarburner Run and Hollow Rock Run were home to Logan’s father while some distance up from the mouth of Yellow Creek lay Logan’s village. About twenty Mingoes would keep camp at night along the shore of the Ohio River, quite close to the mouth of the Yellow Creek.

Around 1774 European immigrants, always restless and forever searching for more land, felt that Pennsylvania was already becoming too crowded, and were itching to move farther west. At this time the Ohio River was regarded as the extreme frontier and the dividing line between the whites and the red man.

Despite the warnings and dangers of attacks, pioneer settlers began coming and claiming land on the West Side of the Ohio River. During the Revolution a blockhouse was built by the government, having command not only of the Ohio River, but also of a vast expanse of territory. By this time, the white man knew Logan as a peacemaker. He refused to take part in the French and Indian War and showed great wisdom in smoothing out strained relations between the two races.

Of course, the calm and peace he sought was destroyed on April 30, 1774 when two white scoundrels invited some Mingoes across the Ohio River for a “friendly” gathering. The group included Logan’s brother, his pregnant sister and her husband. That afternoon ended in the brutal slaughter of the party, including Logan’s father who, along with others, had attempted a rescue.

Logan, with raging anger gathered his tribe together in early May and left the Ohio Valley vowing retaliation. The massacre left a deep stain on the Ohio River annals. It proved to be an extraordinary single incident, which lead to future disaster. {Read an exciting chronicle of these events from Allan W. Eckert’s book titled, That Dark & Bloody River, pp. 54 – 62.}