Hugh Logan was born in Ireland. At the age of fourteen years he had a difficulty with his father, and ran away from home and went to sea. He followed the life of a sailor for three years, and then landed at Philadelphia, and made his way from there to Kentucky, during the first settlement of that State. He married Rebecca Bryan, a sister of Jonathan, David and Henry Bryan, who had been raised by her aunt, Mrs. Daniel Boone; her mother having died while she was young. Their children were William, Alexander, Hugh, Jr., Henry (called “Boss”) and Mary A. Mr. Logan was drowned in Fleming’s creek, Ky., while attempting to swim a race horse across the stream, and his body was not found until twenty-four hours afterward. The night before his death he had a singular premonition of his approaching fate, in a dream, in which the catastrophe of the following day was clearly depicted. He related the dream to his wife, who tried to persuade him not to go near the creek that day; but he laughed at her for being scared at a dream, and met his death as above stated. William Logan, the eldest son, married Nancy H. Hobbs, daughter of Joseph Hobbs and Nancy Hughes, and came to Missouri in 1820, with his wife and, one child, on horseback. They had twelve children in all. Mr. Logan died in 1852, but his widow is still living, on the old place in Teuque Prairie, in her 81st year. Her memory is bright as ever, and she takes great pleasure in relating incidents and adventures of early days in Missouri and Kentucky. She still has her wedding dress, which is made of home-spun cloth and striped with copperas. Alexander Logan married Elizabeth Quick, and settled in Callaway County, Missouri, in 1817, but the following year he moved and settled on South Bear creek, on the line between Warren and Montgomery counties. He was a man of iron constitution, and could endure the greatest extremes of cold and heat without apparent inconvenience. His will was as strong as his constitution, and he governed his family and everything that came under his control with the strictest discipline. One day he accidentally killed a fine donkey, for which he had paid $500, while trying to teach it “horse sense ” with a clapboard. Hugh Logan married a Miss Massey, and settled in Warren County. He was very fond of hunting, and became subject to rheumatism from exposure in the woods. But he was cured one day by an adventure with a bear, which is related elsewhere. Henry Logan came to Missouri when he was quite a boy, and at the age of fourteen he accompanied Daniel Boone and John Davis on a hunting expedition to Grand River. His father having died while he was young, he was bound out to learn the tanner’s trade, and when he became able, he opened a tanyard in Montgomery County, and carried on the business for many years. He was more eccentric than any of the other boys, and many amusing anecdotes are related of him. He was a member of the Old Baptist Church, and a regular attendant upon religious services. He would often carry his hat full of grapes to church and pass them around to the ladies and children during services. In warm weather he went barefooted, with his pants rolled up nearly to his knees; and it is said that he courted his wife barefooted. He asked her father, Jacob Quick, for her hand, late one Sunday night, long after the family had retired to bed. It seems that, about twelve o’clock, he obtained the consent of his sweetheart, and immediately knocked at the door of her father’s sleeping room, in order to secure his sanction. Mr. Quick, startled at the unexpected summons, sprang up and demanded what was wanted, to which Logan replied in a loud voice, “I want your daughter Sally.” The old gentleman, who was vexed at the disturbance and the abruptness of the demand; replied angrily, ” Take her and go to the dance with her.” Mr. Logan wore a hat for twenty years that was made by Mark Cole, out of raccoon and muskrat fur. It would hold an even half-bushel of corn, and its owner frequently used it to measure grain with. He once had a bushel of seed corn that he was saving for a neighbor, when another neighbor came along one day and wanted it, but Logan told him he could not have it unless he would prove himself to be the better man of the two. The neighbor said he was willing to try, and so they went at it on a big pile of tan bark. The result was that Logan lost his corn. Late one night, a stranger stopped at his house and begged to stay all night, when Logan gave him the following characteristic reply: “No, sir, you can’t stay all night at my house, but if you feel like it you may spend the balance of the night with me.” Notwithstanding his eccentricities, he was a kind-hearted man and a good neighbor, and was respected by all who knew him. Two years ago he started to California to visit one of his sons, and not long after the train had left Omaha he fell from the car and was killed.
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