Michael Cresap
Colonel, Continental Army

Michael Cresap was born on 17 April 1742 in Allegany County, MD, the son of the pioneer Thomas Cresap.

Cresap 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, the killings were almost certainly perpetrated by Daniel Greathouse, yet Cresap 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 and in western Pennsylvania, killing, perhaps, nearly thirty men, women and children. Lord John Murray Dunmore, the British Royal Governor of Virginia, raised an army and appointed Cresap to the rank of Captain. The decisive battle of 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. He was commissioned a Colonel under George Washington and commanded a company of Maryland riflemen during the American Revolutionary War. He died in service of the Army.

Honors

The Michael Cresap House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.

Death and Burial

Michael Cresap died of illness on 18 October 1775 in New York County, NY, while in the service of the Army. He is buried at Trinity Churchyard in Manhattan, NY.