History is all around us. The past, just like today is connected with personalities, stories, events and occurrences which intersect often. I am always surprised to see how much history and events cross. There are many connections to discover if one knows where to look.

This week, I was fortunate to attend the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting and Business summit held at the Greenbrier resort. Nearby is the town of Leiwsburg, W.Va., named for Andrew Lewis, a person heavy with history. Andrew Lewis is a giant in West Virginia history and Virginia history as well. I’ll never forget visiting the Virginia State Capital and seeing the Washington Monument, close to the Capitol building in Richmond with a statue of Lewis front and center.

Lewis was a big player in the French and Indian War, but he is really known for the role he played in Lord Dunmore’s war that took place in the spring, summer and fall of 1774. In 2024, we will commemorate the 250th anniversary of that conflict. The war was important in our area because it was a conflict between the settlers along the Ohio River and the Native Americans who occupied the Valley.

The events leading up to the war were complicated, but basically were the result of increasing hostilities between the Virginia settlers and the Native Americans along the Ohio River, specifically the Shawnee and Mingo tribes. The major issues were due to the fact that more and more settlers were settling in what the Shawnee considered to be their territory. The Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768 signed between the English and the Iroquois allowed English settlement in the Ohio Valley and eastern Kentucky, but the Shawnee, who did not abide by the Iroquois treaty, refused to honor the agreement, which led to the hostilities. When surveyors appeared on the Ohio River in April 1774, sent by the Virginia officials to begin surveying land in what is today Kentucky, skirmishes broke out between the two sides.

Due to the fighting and tensions between the settlers and Native Americans in this period, the Virginia government declared war on the Indian tribes of the frontier. The call to arms was led by the last colonial British governor of Virginia, John Murray, 4th Earl Dunmore, or as he is known in the history books, Lord Dunmore.

Lord Dunmore, if you follow Virginia history, was an interesting character. Before coming to Virginia, Dunmore was the Governor of New York and reluctantly was appointed that position in Virginia in January 1771 and assumed it in September of that year. Dunmore tried to connect with the colony but was not well liked — apparently his reluctance to take the reins as the governor of Virginia preceeded him in the colonial capital of Williamsburg, and that turned a lot of Virginias against him from the start. According to the website encylopediavirginia.org, Dunmore bought a plantation in York County, sent his sons to William and Mary and named a daughter Virginia in 1774. His biggest focus was asserting Virginia’s claim to the western frontier, the Ohio Valley, and the claim that areas that are now part of Western Pennsylvania, including Pittsburgh, were Virginia territory. He also later renamed Fort Pitt Fort Dunmore in his honor.

In 1774, Dunmore had a lot going on. He had looming war in the west, but also there was a growing unrest in the East among the colonies and the British. The Virginia House of Burgesses, which had convened first in 1619, was in open opposition with the Royal government over the Intolerable Acts, a series of laws passed by Parliament which punished Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party. Because of the support of the House of Burgesses, Lord Dunmore offically dissolved the body. All of these issues laid the foundations of the American Revolution. But for the purposes of this article, it was Lord Dunmore himself who declared war on the Native American tribes and called for volunteers to march with him to the west.

There are two big events in the history of Dunmore’s War, and the first was the attack on Chief Logan’s family in Hancock County. In April of 1774, Daniel Greathouse and others were fearful of hostilities on their settlements in the country and premeditated an offensive attack on a group of Native Americans who were peacefully living at the mouth of Yellow Creek. When a group of around eight Native Americans came across the river to the Virginia side to visit Bakers Tavern, a local trading post, the settlers had the opportunity. What actually happened on April 30 is still disputed, but what resulted is that Greathouse and his men massacred the eight Natives Americans, including a brother of Chief Logan and two female relatives, one of whom was pregnant and was caring for an infant.

Chief Logan, who had always promoted peace between the two sides, even so far as being reproached from his own tribe for his opinion, was devastated at the loss and went on the warpath to enact vengeance against the settlers.

Back in Williamsburg, Dunmore, hearing that fighting had commenced, raised two armies. According to the West Virginia Encyclopedia, Dunmore himself commanded a force made up of militia from Berkley, Hampshire and Fredrick counties. For the other army, he gave command to then-Col. Andrew Lewis, consisting of militia from Augusta, Bedford, Culpepper, Botetourt and Fincastle counties. The two armies would separate, Dunmore would advance north from Cumberland, Md., to Fort Dunmore, now Pittsburgh, and Lewis would start at Fort Union, present day Lewisburg, and march down the New River to the Kanawha River to the Ohio.

Both armies would follow the Ohio and meet at the mouth of the Hocking river and attack the Native Americans together. What the colonials did not expect was that when Lewis reached the Ohio River at Point Pleasant, the Native Americans surprised them and were ready to attack.

The second event central to Dunmore’s War was the battle of Point Pleasant in October 1774. The Shawnee knew that two armies, both with about 1,000 milita, were on the move and their leader, Cornstalk, decided to attack the southern army first. With his 900 warriors, he crossed the Ohio River at Point Pleasant and engaged in hand-to-hand conflict with the militia.

Fighting was fierce and deadly but by the end of the day, the Shawnee retreated and the battle was over, with the Lewis claiming victory. Lewis lost 75 men, and reported about 140 wounded. Of Cornstalk’s force, numbers are not known as many of the dead were dumped in the river. Cornstalk survived the battle but is said to have retreated in his canoe, never turning his back to his enemy. Later, Cornstalk signed a treaty with Dunmore at Camp Charlotte on the Scioto River, south of Columbus, to officially end the fighting.

The treaty guaranteed that the settlers would recognize the Ohio River as the boundary between the two sides and that the Native Americans would stop attacking river travelers. This insured a tenuous peace between the two sides, although fighting was still present.

Chief Logan who was at the peace talks, was in opposition to the treaty and at the meeting delivered a famous speech which is known now as “Logan Lament:” “I appeal to any white man to say, if ever he entered Logan’s cabin hungry, and he gave him not meat; if ever he came cold and naked, and he clothed him not. During the course of the last long and bloody war, Logan remained idle in his cabin, an advocate for peace. Such was my love for the whites, that my countrymen pointed as they passed, and said, Logan is the friend of the white men. I have even thought to live with you but for the injuries of one man. Col. Cresap, the last spring, in cold blood, and unprovoked, murdered all the relations of Logan, not sparing even my women and children. There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any living creature. This has called on me for revenge. I have sought it: I have killed many: I have fully glutted my vengeance. For my country, I rejoice at the beams of peace. But do not harbor a thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. He will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who is there to mourn for Logan? Not one.”

All in all, Lord Dunmore’s War was fought to open up settlement in the western frontier, but it continued to push Native tribes out of their lands. Dunmore kept hold of Virginia until he was forced to flee the Governor’s Palace in Williamsburg in June 1775, on the eve of the American Revolution.

Some say that the Battle of Point Pleasant was the first battle of the American Revolution, but historians disagree.

Certainly the peace resulting from the conflicts in the west helped focus more attention in the east, fighting with the British and not fighting the Native Americans in the west. So the connections among all of these historical events and people make our area connected to the wider world. And all of it is there to be discovered, if we open our eyes and know where to look.

(Zuros is the Hancock County administrator)