Marker #709 Benj. Logan -- Pioneer

Historical Marker #709, “Benj. Logan – Pioneer,” stands at the intersection of Taylorsville Road and Brunerstown Road in Shelbyville, Kentucky. This marker lists two Revolutionary War veterans who settled in Kentucky: Benjamin Logan and James Knox.

General Benjamin Logan, best known as an early Kentucky frontiersman and legislator, was Kentucky County, Virginia’s first sheriff (before statehood) and one of four military captains in the region. Logan was also served on eight out of ten constitutional conventions to turn Kentucky County into a state. He was an early member of the Kentucky General Assembly—serving multiple terms—and was a member of the convention to write Kentucky’s second constitution.

Born in Orange County, Virginia, in 1743, Logan enrolled in the Virginia militia at age sixteen and served under Colonel Henry Bouquet in Pontiac’s War. By 1774, Logan was promoted to captain and fought in Ohio under Lord Dunmore’s orders. In 1775, Logan helped start a settlement near present-day Stanford, Kentucky, called St. Asaph, which was also called Logan’s Fort.

In 1779, Logan served with Colonel John Bowman as one of the three militia leaders on an expedition into the Shawnee country north of the Ohio River. After being promoted to colonel in 1780, Logan became second-in-command to Colonel George Rogers Clark during a second Shawnee campaign.

In 1781, voters elected Logan to the Virginia Assembly as a delegate from Lincoln County. Virginia Governor Thomas Jefferson then appointed Logan as the militia commander for Lincoln County.

After Kentucky gained statehood, a new county was formed from Lincoln County and named Logan County in Benjamin’s honor. Isaac Shelby, Kentucky’s first governor, placed Logan in command of a full division of the state militia, granting him the rank of general. Concurrently, Logan served in the Kentucky General Assembly and assisted in writing Kentucky’s second constitution.

Logan was married to Ann Montgomery and had nine children. He passed away on December 11, 1802.

Historical marker #709 also commemorates Colonel James Knox, a Long Hunter and colleague of Benjamin Logan. Knox led a party of forty Long Hunters through the Cumberland Gap and into Kentucky in 1769. In 1770 and 1771, he hunted and explored around the Green River area. Knox reportedly returned to Virginia in 1776 to command one of the companies of the 8th Virginia Regiment in the Revolutionary War. Knox’s unit suffered many casualties from malaria while moving through South Carolina. He commanded a company at during the Battle of Saratoga. After the war, he moved back to Kentucky to continue exploration.

Knox was not just a Long Hunter and woodsman, but he ventured into politics as Kentucky moved into statehood. He served in the Virginia legislature in 1788 and then was a Kentucky senator from 1795 to 1800.

After Benjamin Logan died in 1802, Knox married Logan’s widow, Ann, in 1805. Knox died in 1822.