It was a minor mystery when James Le Tort first moved to Manor Twp. There is no recorded deed or warrant that shows when he moved to Indiantown. Nor is there a location for his property. What we know is that on January 15, 1703/4 ¹ his mother Ann wrote a letter from Conestoga to the Pennsylvania Council mentioning about how local Indians at Conestogo Manor were being threatened by another group of Indians. Since James Letort was in Canada from 1701, to 1703, it must have been sometime in late 1703 and before Jan. 15, 1704 when the Letorts moved to Manor Township.

As mentioned we don’t know where he lived but we know what happened to his property, he sold it to James Logan. On January 5, 1719 James Le Tort sold 500 acres to James Logan ² . It was Logan who received a warrant for the property. Le Tort never received a warrant, perhaps because it was on Proprietary land (Reserved for the Penns). The maps shown with this document are from the Taylor Papers, ³ and as you can see Logan’s 500 acres shows up on these papers dating from about 1719. Why should we be so confident that this is the Le Tort property ? Because it's the only 500 acre property that shows up on the Taylor papers. Letort sold this property on Jan. 14, 1719 and later that year it shows up on the Taylor papers as Logan's property. No other property shows up as belonging to James Logan so it could only be the property he bought from James Letort. Had Logan sold the Le Tort property we would see a second 500 acre plot and we would also see a record of Logan selling the property. In addition, the Logan property appears just where we would expect to find the Le Tort property, along a major waterway, making it easy to move his trade goods to his canoe and back after his trip. It is also close to Indiantown, close to his customers. The Pa. Archives also reports one incident where the Indians complained about Ann Le Tort’s pigs eating the garden of the Indian King, which also locates the Le Tort’s close to Indiantown.

Logan had other land in Manor Twp., 300 acres he bought from John Cartlidge , situated right next to Le Tort but this shows up on Taylor’s map as Cartlidge’s property.

Some have suggested that his trading post/home was in the village of Letort, but the village was created almost 200 years later. The property in Letort that people think was James Le Tort's was built in 1752 according to its date stone, over 30 years after Letort left the are in 1718. Some have suggested that this was Letort's property but its not the original house but this location isn't well suited as a location for a trading post. Its too far from the Susquehanna or Conestoga to have much value. Every time Le Tort took a trip to trade he would have to lug his trade goods to the Conestoga or Susquehanna to load his canoe for the trip. When he returned, he would have to repeat the process, moving his furIt makes more sense that he was located along a major stream.

Note: This image from Pa. History On-line, it shows the the Letort/Logan property on a larger map of Manor Twp, then Conestogoe Mannor.


1. Colonial Records Vol. 2, page 121
2. Pa. Archives, 3rd Series, Vol. 3, page 184
3. Microfilm Collection, Lancaster County Historical Society