Michael Cresap
Michael Cresap was a frontiersman born in Maryland on April 17, 1742. He spent part of his adult years in the Ohio Country as a trader and land developer. He led several raids against Indians whom he believed were hostile to white settlement. Logan of the Mingo Indians accused Cresap of murdering his family. In fact, Cresap was not involved in the incident. He was immortalized in Logan's speech (quoted in Thomas Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia) as the murderer of Logan's family.
As a result of the murders, Logan waged war on the settlements along the Ohio River and in western Pennsylvania, killing more than a dozen men women and children. John Murray, Lord Dunmore, raised an army, and appointed Cresap to the rank of captain. The decisive battle of Lord Dunmore's War was the Battle of Point Pleasant. Here Dunmore's forces defeated a band of Shawnee Indians led by Cornstalk.
After Lord Dunmore's War, Cresap returned to Maryland and subsequently raised a company of riflemen for the Continental Army during the American Revolution. George Washington commissioned him a colonel. He died in the service of the army on October 18, 1775.
References and Suggested Reading
- Barr, Daniel P., ed. The Boundaries Between Us: Natives and Newcomers Along the Frontiers of the Old Northwest Territory, 1750-1850. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2006.
- Bond, Beverley W., Jr. The Foundations of Ohio. Columbus, OH: Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, 1941.
- Flavell, Julie, and Stephen Conway, eds. Britain and America go to War: The Impact of War and Warfare in Anglo-America, 1754-1815. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2004.
- Haber, Grace Stevenson. With Pipe and Tomahawk: The Story of Logan, the Mingo Chief. New York, NY: Pageant Press, 1959.
- Hurt, R. Douglas. The Ohio Frontier: Crucible of the Old Northwest, 1720-1830. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1996.
- Jacob, John J. A Biographical Sketch of the Life of the Late Captain Michael Cresap. Cumberland, MD: J.M. Buchanan, 1826.
- Jefferson, Thomas. Notes on the State of Virginia. Boston, MA: Printed by H. Sprague, 1802.
- Knepper, George. Ohio and Its People. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2003.
- Mayer, Brantz. Tah-gah-jute, or, Logan and Cresap: An Historical Essay. Albany, NY: J. Munsell, 1867.
- O'Donnell, James H., III. Ohio's First Peoples. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2004.
- Ricky, Donald B., ed. Encyclopedia of Ohio Indians. St. Clair Shores, MI: Somerset Publishers, Inc., 1998.
- Sawvel, Franklin B. Logan the Mingo. Boston, MA: R. G. Badger, 1921.
- Thwaites, Reuben Gold, and Luise Phelps Kellogg. Documentary History of Dunmore's War, 1774. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Pub. Co., Inc., 2002.
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Citation
"Michael Cresap", Ohio History Central, July 1, 2005, http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=66
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