Croghan, George ___ 1720c-1782 ___ Irish ___ tradesman civilservant

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Croghan was born in Dublin, but emigrated to America in 1741, where he became a fur trader in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. By the mid 1740s, having mastered the customs and language of the local indians, he had become an important trader in Ohio Territory. But, as a result of the French and Indian War, and the expulsion of British merchants from the region, Croghan lost his business. In 1755, he led a group of eight Indian scouts on the ill-fated Braddock Expedition. The following year he was engaged in the defence of the western frontier, and was appointed deputy Indian agent for the Pennsylvania and Ohio region by Sir William Johnson. In 1763, he went to England to negotiate an Indian boundary line. In 1765, on a mission to pacify Illinois Indians, he was wounded. In 1766, he started a settlement near Fort Pitt. For the next decade, he acted as an intermediary between the Indians and the British. Croghan's journals and correspondence are considered one of the most important sources for the history of the frontier in the 30 year period, 1745 to 1775.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio
The Diary Review - Pioneering in Pennsylvania

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1751g-1767g ___ travel commerce exploration US

WEB TEXT LINKS
etext - 1766, 1767
etext - 1760, 1765
etext

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
The Historical Society of Pennsylvania National
Library of Scotland

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
Early Western Journals, 1748-1765: The Four Most Important Early Journals Published on the First Recorded Travel West of Alleghenies
George Croghan's journal of his trip to Detroit in 1767
George Croghan's Journal of His Trip to Michigan

November 2005, September 2008, March 2013
Please email if you have any corrections, additions or comments, or if you've found the site useful. Thank you.

IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.