Last Updated on October 19, 2011 by
Tiffin P. Logan, land and loan agent, Mattoon; was born in Trimble Co., Ky., March 28, 1844; his father was a man of prominence, a cousin to President Harrison, and was honored by the Democratic party with a seat in the Kentucky Legislature during the sessions of 1844-45; in the spring of 1858, removed with his family to Illinois, and located in Windsor, Shelby Co.; here he occupied the office of Justice of the Peace eleven years in succession; here Tiffin P. began life for himself; he lived with his brother-in-law till he attained the age of 15 years; at this age he could neither read nor write; leaving his taskmaster, he determined to lend his energies to the acquiring of an education; by the performance of various commissions he paid his board, tuition, and other necessary expenses, and at the expiration of three years, had acquired a good elementary education, and had $8 ahead; March 8, 1864, he located where Ottawa, Kan., now is, then occupied by eleven tribes of Indians; with these, he lived some six weeks, sole representative of the Caucasian race; here, with a capital of $41, he began the manufacture of shingles, and in nine months accumulated $1,200; owing to ill health, he closed out his business, and engaged in clerking for Holt & Evans, the first white men operating a store in Ottawa; in March, 1865, he located in Kansas City, and operated a grocery store two years; during the winter of 1866-67, he took a business course in Spaulding’s Commercial College, in Kansas City; he next went to Lyon Co., Kan., and engaged in the dairy business one year; in the spring of 1868, he went to Sedalia, Mo., and there engaged in the milk and dairy business six years; at this he cleared about $2,000 per annum, but lost most of it in 1874, operating in cattle; in 1875, he returned to Illinois, and engaged in handling and shipping stock; in December, 1875, he engaged in the lumber and grain trade at Bethany, Ill.; this he followed till March, 1878, when he opened a land office in Mattoon, to which he has recently added the loan agency. He was married Oct. 17, 1876, to Sue M. Smutz, a native of Lima, Ohio; has one child-Edna P. Owns real estate in Bethany, Ill.; in honor of his early citizenship, Logan Street, of Ottawa, Kan., was named for him.