Lord Dunmore’s War and the Fort Gower Resolves – The first American declaration of independence on the banks of the Hockhocking 250 years ago

Tom O’Grady, of the Southeast Ohio History Center, will be speaking at the Federal Valley Resource Center (State Route 329 in Stewart, Ohio) on Monday, May 13, 2024 at 7:00PM. O’Grady  will discuss the march of 1200-1500 Virginia militiamen along the banks of the Hocking River in the autumn of 1774 on their way Indian towns in the Scioto Valley.

Dunmore’s large force camped in the wilderness at places where Stewart, Chauncey, Nelsonville, and Logan now stand. The story of early Ohio history includes the story of Chief Logan, the massacre of his family and his famous speech beneath the Logan Elm, The Battle of Point Pleasant on the Ohio River, the Treaty of Camp Charlotte, and the Resolutions passed by officers at the end of the Dunmore campaign upon returning to the confluence of the Hockhocking and Ohio rivers.

Some academics have argued the Fort Gower Resolves are the first American declaration of independence, written 18 months before the version penned by Thomas Jefferson.

See how events in Southeast Ohio influenced the course of American and world history.