Editing Benjamin Logan

{{short description|American politician}}
{{for|the American electrical engineer and fiddle player|Benjamin F. Logan}}

{{Infobox officeholder
| name               = Benjamin Logan
| image              = General Benjamin Logan - Google Art Project.jpg
| office1            = Member of the <br>[[Kentucky House of Representatives]]<br> from [[Shelby County, Kentucky|Shelby County]]
| term_start1        = 1792
| term_end1          = 1795
| office2             = Member of the <br>[[Virginia House of Delegates]]<br>from [[Lincoln County, Kentucky|Lincoln County]]
| term_start2         = October 17, 1785
| term_end2           = October 14, 1787
|predecessor2    = [[John Logan (pioneer)|John Logan]]
|successor2      = Baker Ewing
|alongside2      = John Edwards, [[John Jouett]]
| term_start3         =May 7, 1781
| term_end3          = April 1782
|predecessor3    = position created
|successor3      = Isaac Hite
|alongside3      = John Edwards
| birth_date         = May 1, 1743
| birth_place        = [[Augusta County, Virginia|Augusta County]], [[Colony of Virginia]]
| death_date         = {{death date and age|1802|12|11|1743|5|1}}
| death_place        = [[Shelbyville, Kentucky]]
| branch              = [[Virginia Militia]]<br>Kentucky Militia
| serviceyears        = 1764-1788
| rank                = General
| battles             = 
{{tree list}}
*[[Lord Dunmore's War]]
*[[American Revolutionary War]]
*[[Northwest Indian War]]
**[[Logan's Raid]]
{{tree list/end}}
}}
'''Benjamin Logan''' (May 1, 1743 – December 11, 1802) was an American pioneer, soldier, and politician from [[Virginia]], then [[Shelby County, Kentucky]]. As colonel of the [[Kentucky County, Virginia|Kentucky County]], [[Virginia]] [[militia]] during the [[American Revolutionary War]], he was second-in-command of all the trans-Appalachian Virginia. He became a politician and helped secure statehood for [[Kentucky]]. His brother, [[John Logan (pioneer)|John Logan]], who at times served under him in the militia and replaced him as delegate, became the first state treasurer of Kentucky.<ref>[[Lyon Gardiner Tyler]], Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co. 1915), vol. 2, pp. 138-139</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23368558|jstor = 23368558|title = A Sketch OF THE Life and Times OF GENERAL BENJAMIN LOGAN|last1 = Conkwright|first1 = Bessie Taul|journal = Register of the Kentucky State Historical Society|year = 1916|volume = 14|issue = 41|pages = 19–35}}</ref>

==Early and family life==
Benjamin Logan was born in then-vast [[Augusta County, Virginia]], the eldest son of [[Scottish-Americans|Scottish immigrants]] David and Jane (McKinley) Logan. He had seven siblings by the time his father died, when Benjamin Logan was 15. By primogeniture, Benjamin inherited the family's 860 acre (3.5&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>) farm, but would sell it when he reached legal age, then split the proceeds with his siblings and move across the Appalachian Mountains to the [[Holston River]], where he purchased land and began to farm.<ref>Tyler p. 138</ref>  He married Ann Montgomery in 1772; they had eight children.

==Militia Officer==
Logan served in the Virginia militia during [[Henry Bouquet]]'s 1764 campaign against the [[Shawnee]]. A decade later, he served as a [[lieutenant]] in [[Lord Dunmore's War]] against the same Indian nation. In 1775, Logan joined a party of settlers led by [[Daniel Boone]] who traveled to [[Kentucky]], then the westernmost portion of [[Virginia]]. He left the group in what would become [[Lincoln County, Kentucky|Lincoln County]]. With the help of his brother [[John Logan (pioneer)|John]] and others, he built a stockade known as Logan's Fort which eventually would grow into the town of St. Asaph's near [[Stanford, Kentucky|Stanford]]. In 1776, Logan brought his family from Virginia to join him, but initially settled them at Harrod's Fort, as less exposed to Native raids, but in 1777 they joined him at Logan's Fort. However, beginning on May 20, 1777, the fort was besieged by a hundred native warriors. When the garrison's provisions and ammunition ran low, Logan and two companions left during the night and traveled 150 miles to the Holston settlement. Logan returned as fast as he could with powder and lead; his companions followed with a relief party under Col. John Bowman, which caused the besiegers to scatter.<ref>Tyler p. 138</ref>
 
Logan was appointed [[sheriff]] of the county and a [[justice of the peace]]. During the American Revolution, he was the second ranking officer in the Virginia militia for Kentucky County, taking part in the defense of the settlements against attacks made by British-led Indians. In July 1779, under Co. Bowman, Logan as second-in-command led 300 men in an expedition across the Ohio River to the native settlement at [[Chillicothe, Ohio|Chillicothe]]. He also joined in campaigns against hostile Indians north of the [[Ohio River]], serving under [[George Rogers Clark]]. However, Logan and Clark frequently disagreed over strategy.

After American independence, Logan became active in the campaign to establish Kentucky as a separate state. He served as Kentucky's representative in the [[Virginia House of Delegates]] from 1781 until 1787 when he began arguing for statehood.

In October 1786, Logan led a force of Kentucky mounted militiamen against the Shawnee towns in the [[Ohio Country]] along the Little Miami River and [[Mad River (Ohio)|Mad River]] ([[Logan's Raid]]). These were lightly defended since most warriors had left to defend the villages of Chief Little Turtle from a separate force moving up the Wabash River under the command of General George Rogers Clark. Logan seized and burned thirteen villages, taking prisoner women and children,<ref>"The Early History of Madison County," Register of Kentucky State Historical Society, Vol. 30, No. 91, p.148</ref> destroying the food supplies and killing or capturing many, including the aged Chief [[Moluntha]] who surrendered under a U.S. flag outside his wegiwa while displaying the Shawnee copy of the Treaty of Fort Finney (1785). Despite the protection of Logan's men, Captain [[Hugh McGary]] slipped through the guard and murdered the Shawnee chief. The chief's death infuriated the Shawnee, who retaliated by redoubling their attacks against the whites, and escalating the [[Northwest Indian War]].

Logan served as one of Lincoln County's initial representatives to the Virginia House of Delegates in 1781, and also served in the 1785, 1786, and 1787 sessions.<ref>Cynthia Miller Leonard, The Virginia General Assembly 1619-1978 (Richmond: Virginia State Library 1978) pp. 142, 157, 161</ref> Meanwhile, Virginia conducted a tax census, which listed both John and Benjamin as non-residents of Lincoln County, but taxed each for slaves and livestock in the county, John for three enslaved adults and two younger slaves, as well as seven horses, a stud horse, and 30 cattle, and Benjamin for three adult slaves, five younger slaves, eight horses and 70 cattle.<ref>Netti Schreiner-Yantis and Florena Speakman Love, The 1787 Census of Virginia (Genealogical Books in Print, 1987) vol.1 p. 310</ref> Since Benjamin Logan does not appear as a resident of another county, he may have been overlooked or away conducting a military expedition.

Benjamin Logan advocated for Kentucky statehood at the [[Danville, Kentucky|Danville]] Convention and was a delegate when it wrote the first Kentucky constitution in 1791 and 1792. Following statehood, he served in the Kentucky House of Representatives from 1792 to 1795. He ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1795<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Our Campaigns - KY Governor Race - May 27, 1795 |url=https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=783484 |access-date=2024-12-27 |website=www.ourcampaigns.com}}</ref> and 1800,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Our Campaigns - KY Governor Race - May 06, 1800 |url=https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=219046 |access-date=2024-12-27 |website=www.ourcampaigns.com}}</ref> and for the U.S. Senate in 1798.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Our Campaigns - KY US Senate Race - Nov 03, 1798 |url=https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=411734 |access-date=2024-12-27 |website=www.ourcampaigns.com}}</ref> In his 1795 campaign for governor, Logan won the first round of balloting but lost on the second to [[James Garrard]].<ref name=":0" />

==Death and legacy==
In 1802, Benjamin Logan died of a stroke at age 60, at his home 6 miles southwest of [[Shelbyville, Kentucky]]. He was buried in the family cemetery.

Both [[Logan County, Kentucky]]<ref>{{cite book|last=Collins|first=Lewis|title=History of Kentucky|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F5FQAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA479|year=1877|page=479|publisher=Library Reprints, Incorporated |isbn=9780722249208}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_luoxAQAAMAAJ | title=The Register of the Kentucky State Historical Society, Volume 1 | publisher=Kentucky State Historical Society | year=1903 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_luoxAQAAMAAJ/page/n36 36]}}</ref> and [[Logan County, Ohio]] were named for him, as is the [[Benjamin Logan Local School District]] in Ohio.

He was the uncle of [[Supreme Court of the United States|U.S. Supreme Court]] associate justice [[John McKinley]].<ref>{{cite book| title=John McKinley and the Antebellum Supreme Court: Circuit Riding in the Old Southwest| isbn=9780817317713| last=Brown| first=Steven P.| publisher=University of Alabama Press| location=Tuscaloosa, Alabama| year=2012| page=16| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zVM23Eg7wcwC| access-date=February 17, 2022}}</ref>

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
* Talbert, Charles G. ''Benjamin Logan, Kentucky Frontiersman.'' University of Kentucky Press, 1962, {{ISBN|0-935680-22-5}}.
*{{cite book |last=Allen |first=William B. |title=A History of Kentucky: Embracing Gleanings, Reminiscences, Antiquities, Natural Curiosities, Statistics, and Biographical Sketches of Pioneers, Soldiers, Jurists, Lawyers, Statesmen, Divines, Mechanics, Farmers, Merchants, and Other Leading Men, of All Occupations and Pursuits |publisher=Bradley & Gilbert |year=1872 |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_s_wTAAAAYAAJ |access-date=2008-11-10 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_s_wTAAAAYAAJ/page/n44 43]–46}}
*{{cite book |title=Appleton's cyclopædia of American biography |volume=4|year=1887 |page=2|chapter=Benjamin Logan |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q54LAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA2|last1=Wilson|first1=James Grant|last2=Fiske|first2=John}} [[Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography]]

==External links==
{{Portal|Biography}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20061110090236/http://www.logansfort.org/index.html Logan's Fort website]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Logan, Benjamin}}
[[Category:1740s births]]
[[Category:1802 deaths]]
[[Category:Kentucky militiamen in the American Revolution]]
[[Category:Kentucky pioneers]]
[[Category:People from Logan County, Kentucky]]
[[Category:Logan County, Ohio]]
[[Category:Members of the Kentucky House of Representatives]]
[[Category:Members of the Virginia House of Delegates]]
[[Category:People of Dunmore's War]]
[[Category:People of Kentucky in the American Revolution]]
[[Category:People of Virginia of Pontiac's War]]
[[Category:American people of the Northwest Indian War]]
[[Category:American people of Scottish descent]]
[[Category:People from colonial Virginia]]
[[Category:People from Shelby County, Kentucky]]
[[Category:People from Augusta County, Virginia]]
[[Category:18th-century members of the Virginia General Assembly]]
[[Category:Candidates in the 1795 United States elections]]
[[Category:Candidates in the 1800 United States elections]]
[[Category:Candidates in the 1798 United States elections]]
[[Category:U.S. state legislators who owned slaves]]