Benjamin Logan was an American soldier and politician.
Background
Benjamin, the eldest of six children, was left by the death of his father in 1757 the head of the family. He was born around 1743 in Augusta County, Virginia, United States. His parents, David and Jane Logan, had come from West Pennsborough Township, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, in 1740. The Logan family, originally of Scotch stock, had settled in northern Ireland and emigrated from that country to Pennsylvania early in the eighteenth century. Benjamin, the eldest of six children, was left by the death of his father in 1757 the head of the family. Under the Virginia law of primogeniture he was sole heir or the estate, which seems to have been of respectable proportions.
Career
In 1764 Logan accompanied Bouquet's expedition with the rank of sergeant. Upon his return he and his brother John removed to the Holston region where Benjamin bought a farm. He held the rank of lieutenant in a company of Virginia militia which accompanied the Governor in Dunmore's War against the Ohio Indians in 1774.
His importance in Western history began in 1775 when with other frontiersmen of southwest Virginia he joined Richard Henderson who was going out to settle his Transylvania colony. Logan established a fort within the limits of the present Stanford and called it St. Asaph's. The coming of the Revolution brought incessant Indian warfare to Kentucky and gave Logan many opportunities to show his worth. His chief service in the war was as a leader of the retaliatory expeditions against the Indians in Ohio after their invasions of Kentucky in 1778, 1780, and 1782.
In 1781 he was appointed county lieutenant of Lincoln County and as such was the ranking militia officer of the district. He was also a member of the Virginia General Assembly from Lincoln County for three terms, 1781-1782, and 1785-1787. With the transition from war to peace in Kentucky Logan failed to hold his dominant position.
His education had been so imperfect as probably to be a handicap to him even on the frontier, and he was temperamentally more a man of action than a politician. Yet he represented his county in the various conventions which marked the "struggle for autonomy" in Kentucky, he was a member of the convention (1792) which made the first constitution of Kentucky, and he was a member of the electoral college which made Isaac Shelby the first governor of the state. He was a presidential elector in 1792 and a member of the electoral college which chose the first Senate of the Kentucky legislature.
During these years his military exploits were few, although in 1788 he led the Kentucky troops in the expedition against the Indians of the Northwest. In 1790 Washington appointed him a member of the Board of War in the West and Governor Shelby subsequently made him brigadier-general of state militia. In 1793 and 1794 he represented Lincoln County in the Kentucky House of Representatives, and in 1795 he was elected a representative from Shelby County, to which place he had removed. In 1796 he was a candidate for governor, receiving a plurality of votes on the first ballot of the electoral college but being beaten on the second by James Garrard.
His death in 1802 was the result of apoplexy; he was buried near the present Shelbyville, Kentucky. At his death possessed one of the largest estates in Kentucky.
Achievements
During the American Revolution Logan was the most influential and the most trusted of the Kentucky leaders. He participated in the defense of the settlements against attacks made by British-led Indians. He contributed significantly to Kentucky's development and served in the State Constitutional Convention in 1792 and as a member of the Kentucky House of Representatives.
Politics
Logan was active in the campaign to establish Kentucky as a separate state.
Personality
Logan was of giant physique and was renowned throughout the West for his great strength and courage. He had more worldly wisdom than was usual with frontiersmen.
Connections
Logan married Ann Montgomery in 1772. He had eight children, one of whom, William Logan, later was United States senator from Kentucky.
