The Trapper, the Indian, and the Naming of Logan

The Trapper, the Indian, and the Naming of Logan

BY PATRICIA L. RECORD

The study of place names offers a window to the past that reveals much about the beliefs, values, and priorities of past generations. Cities, towns, settlements, mountains, valleys, and other natural features, and made-made objects are named for a variety of reasons —including national and local significant events as well as individuals who have made important contributions to society. Some geographic places have been named for purely fanciful whims. 1

Logan c.1896.The John T. Caine, Jr., House is in the foreground, the Logan Temple in the background.

UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, CHARLES R. SAVAGE PHOTO

Geographic places in Cache Valley are named for a variety of reasons. For example, the settlers of Richmond named their community for the rich fertile soil found there, as well as for Charles C. Rich a Mormon apostle and regional leader, and for the town of Richmond, Missouri—a place where Orson Hyde, another important church leader had lived. 2

Some place names have changed. The first settlement in Cache Valley, known today as Wellsville, was originally Maughan’s Fort named for Peter Maughan who, under assignment from LDS church president Brigham Young, led the original group of settlers to the valley in 1856, and later helped organize the Cache County government. 3

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE WRIGHT FAMILY

The initial settlement of Cache Valley was abandoned in 1857 when news was received that the United States Army was marching to Utah to replace Brigham Young as territorial governor and to put down an alleged Mormon rebellion. After tensions eased, Peter Maughan and approximately one hundred fifty families returned to Cache Valley in 1859 where they re-established the Maughan’s Fort settlement and settled five new locations--Richmond, Spring Creek, Summit Creek, North Settlement, and Logan. Five of these new settlements were named or renamed by LDS Apostles Orson Hyde and Ezra T. Benson who visited Cache Valley in 1859. A report of the trip was published in the Deseret News on November 28, 1859.

The place hitherto known as Maughan’s Fort we named Wellsville. Spring Creek settlement being situated in an elbow of the mountains and appearing to us somewhat a providential place we named Providence.The next settlement northward had been previously named Logan. The settlement on Summit Creek, six miles north of Logan we named Smithfield, and we told the people there to be spiritually what their location really was – a city on a hill that could not be hid. Five miles north of Wellsville, on the opposite or west side of the valley, heretofore known as the North Settlement, was named Mendon. 4

The name for the city of Logan, county seat for Cache County, location for the historic LDS temple, home to Utah State University, and the economic and political center of northern Utah is an interesting case study in the complexity of place names and the difficulty in evaluating conflicting historical accounts about the name. This study traces the city of Logan name to the nearby river and two individuals—one a trapper, the other an Indian chief. When Peter Maughan sent a group of about thirty families, under the leadership of John P. Wright assisted by John Nelson and Israel J. Clark, north from his settlement in early May 1859, he advised them to settle on the Logan River. Ralph Smith, one of the original settlers later recorded, “…Brother Maughan wished us to stay at Logan but most of the right. company desired to go to Summit Creek now Smithfield.” Later in the month, “Bro Maughan sent us word that it was wisdom for us to move our familys to their fort on account of the Indians. We started that evening and camped near Logan….”On May 29, after building a bridge across Blacksmith’s Fork located south of Logan, the group reached Maughan’s Fort. With their families safe, most of the men returned to Summit Creek to finish putting in their crops. A week later Smith recorded: “June 6 most of those who had put crops in at Summit Creek gathered on the banks of Logan, had a fort surveyed off and got logs for houses and before the middle of June had gathered to Logan to settle.” 5 The cabins were built in two rows facing each other down both sides of the present Center Street between Main Street and 200 West.

On Sunday, July 3, Peter Maughan called a meeting of the settlers in Logan. He had received a letter from Brigham Young confirming the appointment of John P. Wright, John Nelson, and I. J. Clark as leaders for the settlement and directed the men to organize themselves into companies for self-defense. 6 A week later, on July 10th, the settlers met to organize their community, establish its boundaries, and vote on the settlement’s name— Logan. 7

Naming their community is, perhaps, an interesting example of the strength of pioneer democracy. When Mormon church apostles Benson and Hyde visited Cache Valley in the late fall of 1859, Logan was the only settlement that was not renamed because it “…had been previously named Logan.” 8 Had the community not voted four months earlier, would Hyde and Benson have felt at liberty to rename the settlement as they did with the other five communities? Was the name Logan so well established that the two church officials elected not to make a change? Or was the decision to retain the name Logan based on both reasons? In any case disputes soon arose as to the origin of the name Logan for the settlement.

It is clear that the Logan River had been named before the arrival of Mormon pioneers in the 1850s. The first written account suggesting the river was named for an early trapper was in Origins of Utah Place Names: “It [Logan] derived its name from Logan’s Fort, which in turn received its name from the river near which it was built. The river is said to have been named for Ephraim Logan, early trapper, who explored this region in the 1820’s.” 9 Most historians are in agreement that the river was named for Ephraim Logan, an early fur trapper in the northern Utah area.

Dale L. Morgan, a historian of the fur trapper era, provides the following history of Ephraim Logan noting that he traveled with:

…Andrew Henry’s men who journeyed from the Big Horn to Bear River in the summer and fall of 1824, he wintered with Weber in Cache Valley in 1824-1825, the name of the Logan River doubtless dating from this time, and that he was present at the rendezvous of 1825 for dealings with Ashley. Logan shared anonymously in the mountain experience of the next two years, and was at the Bear Lake rendezvous of 1827, at which time it was agreed that he, Jacob O’Hara, William Bell, and James Scott would hunt the ensuing year in the western parts of the Snake country…(emphasis added).

Morgan continues,

The casualty list prepared by Jedediah Smith for William Clark in 1830 represented Logan and his companions to have been killed in “Snake Country 1827 or 1828” by “Snakes (supposed)”; and Daniel Waldo in an interview with H. H. Bancroft in 1878 commented that “Jim Scott… lost his life on the Owyhee. Eight of them went over on the Owyhee in early days and they never saw them again….” Jim Beckwourth’s account of the evanishment was that “a party of fur-trappers, consisting of twelve men under the charge of one Logan, left our company to try their fortune but were never heard of afterward. Beyond doubt, they fell victims to the treachery of the Black Feet.” 10

Charles L. Camp, another historian of the far western fur trade, wrote: “Logan Utah takes its name from the Logan River in Cache Valley which was named for the trapper Ephraim Logan, one of the Smith, Jackson and Sublette men who was killed by Indians early in 1828.” 11 John Van Cott, a student of Utah place names, writes that “The city has several name sources. The most prominent is that Ephraim Logan, a mountain man with Ashley’s group, and a member of Jedediah Smith’s party, lost his life in the 1820s along the river. The settlement was later named for the river….Another claim is that the settlement was named for a friendly Indian chief named Logan.” 12

John Fish Wright, who was seventeen years old when Logan was settled, recounted in an interview with Joel Ricks:

We soon discovered that we needed a name for it, our town, so father called a meeting to see what we should call it. A motion was passed authorizing father as the presiding elder to select a name. He made a little talk and said as the river was known as the Logan, and that it was the name of the famous Indian Chief who had been friendly to the white settlers of the east, he thought that would be a good name. His suggestion was approved by the meeting.” 13

The editors of the Logan newspaper, The Journal, reported in 1907 that the city was “named after the celebrated Indian chief Logan.” The history of Logan, as chronicled by the Chamber of Commerce more than fifteen years later, mistakenly stated that, “tradition tells us that the early trappers and explorers named the river, Logan, after an old Indian Chief who had been a great friend to the whites.” 14 To add to the mix whether the city of Logan was named after the Logan River or an Indian, compilers of the United States Dictionary of Places wrote: “The town [Logan] is named after Plains Indian Chief Logan Fontanglle.” 15 The Indian Chief was actually Logan Fontenelle, and although some discredit his association with the name of the city of Logan, a case can be made that Logan Fontenelle was the unnamed mysterious Indian Chief spoken of by John Fish Wright. 16

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE WRIGHT FAMILY

Logan Fontenelle was the son of Lucien Fontenelle, an experienced mountain man who was at the 1826 Cache Valley Rendezvous, the 1827 Bear Lake Rendezvous, and was in Cache Valley during the winter of 1830-1931 and, who along with another fur trapper, Andrew Drips, owned a fur trading post at Bellevue, Nebraska, on the banks of the Missouri River. In 1835 Fontenelle and his partner along with Fitzpatrick, Sublette and Bridger purchased Fort William (Laramie). 17 Logan's mother was Meumbane, daughter of the Omaha's principal, Chief Big Elk, In 1838, at the age of thirteen Logan traveled with his parents to the rendezvous at Wind River and Became an experienced trader in his own right. 18

Logan was part French and part Indian. His father’s home was built to reflect his French background with comfortable furnishings and surroundings. Logan and his three brothers and sister played with other Indian children and learned the Indian ways. Logan learned the French and Omaha languages as well as other Indian dialects and learned English when he attended school for several years in St. Louis with his brother, Albert. In 1843 Logan (Shon-ga-ska—White Horse) married an Omaha woman, Gixpeaha, and they had three children. Because of his knowledge of languages, and as grandson of Chief Big Elk, he was frequently an interpreter for the tribe. He was appointed as a United States interpreter in 1843 and worked with Major John Dougherty in the area near Council Bluffs. 19

This aerial photograph of the Logan Tabernacle and Temple was taken on September 4, 1935.

UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

When Chief Big Elk met the Mormons in the fall of 1846 to discuss their camping on Indian land, Logan was his interpreter. Hosea Stout reported on that meeting,

At 8 o’clock the Twelve & High Council met with them in council. The following is the minutes of said council. Present on the part of the Omahas Big Elk a man sixty two years of age his son (Standing Elk) a man about 32 years of age and Logan Fontenelle the interpreter, a half breed, a young man of a very penetrating look, and something of a scholar, a descendant of the Omaha nation on his mother’s side aged about 24 years and about seventy chiefs and braves. 20

Logan Fontenelle worked hard at keeping the peace between his people and the Mormon settlers. He met often with Mormon leaders, interpreting and answering questions. He explained to Brigham Young and his council that the best route for them to take to the mountains was to follow the Platte River across the plains. 21

Logan Fontenelle

NEBRASKA STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

After the death of Chief Big Elk, Logan was inducted into the Council of Chiefs that ruled the tribe. He became the principal chief of the Omaha when they ceded their land west of the Missouri River to the United States. He and the tribal chiefs traveled to Washington D.C. to sign the treaty. Logan Fontenelle’s name was at the top of the list. 22 Logan, lean and strong, was about medium height with black hair and dark piercing eyes. He dressed as a Frenchman in Washington and doubtless employed his courteous French manners there.

Chief Logan died in a skirmish with his enemy, the Sioux, in the spring of 1855. He was just thirty years old. Many Indian friends, and white people from the surrounding towns and villages, attended his funeral in Bellevue. He was buried beside his father on top of a hill overlooking the Missouri River. United States President Franklin Pierce sent the national flag with the then thirty stars on it for Logan’s burial. 23 The Daughters of the American Revolution have built a monument to honor him near the place his home stood, at the southern end of the Fontenelle Forest.

From 1849 until 1852, John P. Wright and his family lived in Council Bluffs, Nebraska, seven miles across the Missouri River from Chief Logan’s home in Bellevue. Logan was well known by the Mormons as a friendly Indian who exerted great effort to keep the peace. He was the “Frenchman” who could interpret English, French and Indian dialects, and as a trader he knew the mountains well and gave the Mormons valuable information regarding their journey to the West.The name of Chief Logan naturally came to mind when John P. Wright stood on the banks of the Logan River in the wilderness of northern Utah and named the town of Logan. He did not know why the trappers had called the river Logan; he only knew that they did. He may have thought about the two Logans, the Indian chief and the river, and considered it the perfect combination for the name of the town.

NOTES

Patricia L. Record is a librarian at the Logan Library.

1 Many places in Utah were named after people.The towns of,Kanosh,Koosharem,and Kanarra were named for Indian leaders;the cities of Fillmore and Monroe and the counties of Millard and Garfield honor United States presidents;Ogden,Weber and Provo recognize the contributions of the mountain men.The towns of Ephraim,Nephi,Lehi,Hyrum,and Joseph are named for religious figures peculiar to the Mormon culture.And then there are the names of places like Elsinore that honor Elsinore,Denmark, former home of many of the earlier settlers.

2 John W.Van Cott, Utah Place Names,(Salt Lake City:The University of Utah Press,1990),315.

3 Joel E.Ricks,ed., The History of a Valley, Cache Valley,Utah-Idaho (Logan :Cache Valley Centennial Commission,1956),34.

4 Wellsville was named for Daniel H.Wells,second counselor to Brigham Young;Smithfield was named in honor of the settlement’s first bishop,John Glover Smith;Mendon for Ezra T.Benson’s birthplace in Massachusetts.Ricks, The History of a Valley,52-53.

5 Quoted in Ricks, The History of a Valley, 40-42.

6 Ralph Smith Oral History,interviewed by Joel Ricks,4,Logan Library Archives.

7 Joel Ricks,“Facts about the Early Settlement of Logan,”4,unpublished manuscript,Logan Library Archives.

8 Ricks, The History of a Valley,52.

9 Utah Writers’Project,Work Projects Administration,“Origins of Utah Place Names,”(Salt Lake City: Utah State Department of Public Instruction,1940),28.

10 Dale L.Morgan ed.,The West of William H.Ashley:The international struggle for the fur trade of the Missouri,the Rocky Mountains,and the Columbia,with explorations beyond the Continental Divide,recorded in the diaries and letters of William H.Ashley and his contemporaries 1822-1838,(Denver:The Old West Publishing Company,1964),289,n 214.

11 Charles L.Camp, George C.Yount and his Chronicles of the West (Denver:Old West Publishing Co., 1966),70.

12 John W.Van Cott, Utah Place Names (Salt Lake City:The University of Utah Press,1990),232.

13 John Fish Wright Oral History,Interviewed by Joel Ricks,5;copy in the Logan Library Archives. John Fish Wright crossed the plains with his family in 1852 and assisted in building their home in Draper. He participated in the resistance at the coming of Johnston’s Army to Utah and he was an Indian language interpreter and mail carrier in early Cache Valley.When the Wright family moved to Cache Valley,John was a picket guard near Paradise and came in contact with many local natives as they traversed that area as it was the junction of three Indian trails.He learned their ways and learned to converse with them.He became an interpreter and was often sent to make peace with them.He was particularly friendly with old Chief Sagwitch,one of the main leaders of the Indians,and at one time John and his wife,Martha,entertained Chief Washakie,who ate with them at their table.John Fish Wright’s father,John Pannell Wright, was born in St.Swithins,Lincolnshire,England,January 18,1805,and died in Paradise,Cache County, Utah in 1886.He was a sea captain and knew much concerning higher mathematics and astronomy. Wright,with his wife,Mary Hill Fish,and six of their nine children,left England in December 1848,and traveled by ship to New Orleans and from there up the Missouri River to Council Bluffs,Iowa.They lived there until 1852 when they crossed the plains to Utah.The family first settled in Draper where Wright built a two story house and had a successful cabinet making business.But,in 1859 he left it all to answer a call from Brigham Young to help settle Cache Valley.John Fish Wright married Martha D.Gibbs in 1864 and they had ten children.He moved to Paradise,Cache County in 1861 and at the age of twenty-two was called to be the bishop there.For over ten years he was in charge of the Coe and Carter of Omaha, Nebraska,rail way tie contractors business,where he was entrusted with the handling of large sums of money.He served as a school trustee for several years,and was a county selectman from 1889 until 1901, and was post commander of the northern district.He held the office of constable for several terms.In 1892 he served as a member of the territorial legislature.He was a bishop of Hyrum Ward for twelve years and a member of the High Council in the Hyrum Stake.For biographical sketches of John Fish Wright, see Andrew Jenson, Latter-Day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia, Vol.1 (1901,repr.,Salt Lake City:Western Epics,1971),431-32,and Noble Warrum,ed., Utah Since Statehood:Historical and Biographical 4 Vols.(Salt Lake City:S.J.Clarke Publishing Co.,1919),4:793-94.

14 The Journal,(Logan,Utah) April 27,1907;August 4,1923.

15 United States Dictionary of Places,(New York:Somerset Publishers,Inc.,1988),500.

16 Cache Valley historian A.J.Simmonds refuted the United States Dictionary of Places claim.“I suppose,” Simmonds wrote in The Herald Journal,April 8,1990,“they meant Logan Fontanelle;but if that is the case they were wrong in more than one way.Fontanelle was a fur trapper and mountain man,not an Indian chief.Nor is Logan,Utah named after him.”Simmonds went on to explain that the city of Logan “…is named for the Logan River which,in turn,was named for Ephraim Logan,a mountain man who came into Cache Valley with the Weber Party of 1824,and who was killed by Shoshoni or Bannock Indians on the Owyhee River in Southeastern Idaho in 1828.”

17 Lucien Fontenelle was born October 9,1800,probably in New Orleans.His parents were from France and settled at the Burat Settlement near Pointe a la Hache,some miles below New Orleans.He traded for the Missouri Fur Company in the Council Bluffs area,starting in 1819.Dale L.Morgan and Eleanor T.Harris, The Rocky Mountain Journals of William Marshall Anderson ,(Lincoln and London : University of Nebraska Press,1967),307-12;and Alan C.Trottman,“Lucien Fontenelle,”in LeRoy R. Hafen,ed., The Mountain Men and the Fur Trade of the Far West,(Glendale,CA:The Arthur H.Clark Company,1965),V 81-99.

18 Richard E.Bennett, Mormons at the Missouri,1846-1852 (Norman and London:University of Oklahoma Press,1987),71.

19 Charles Charvat, Logan Fontenelle:an Indian Chief in broadcloth and fine linen,a biographical narrative (Omaha:The American Printing Co.,1961),21,34.

20 Juanita Brooks,ed., On the Mormon Frontier:the Diary of Hosea Stout,1844-1861 (Salt Lake City:Utah State Historical Society:University of Utah Press,1964),188.

21 Bennett, Mormons at the Missouri, 105

22 Treaty with Omaha,1854;in Charles J.Kappler,ed., Indian Treaties,1778-1883 (1904,reprint New York:Interland Publishing,Inc.,1972),611-14.

23 Charles Charvat, Logan Fontenelle:an Indian Chief in broadcloth and fine linen,a biographical narrative (Omaha:The American Printing Co.,1961),44