Home of John Logan

Text

Historical Marker #1561 near Stanford notes the location of early Lincoln County settler John Logan's home. Although Logan is not as well remembered as many of Kentucky's other early explorers, military personalities, and politicians, he was a prominent figure in the commonwealth's beginnings.

Logan was born in Virginia in 1747 to parents that had originally emigrated from Ireland. After moving to southwestern Virginia in the early 1770s, John and his brother, Benjamin, participated in Lord Dunmore's War. Then, in 1776, the brothers and their families moved to Kentucky and settled in what would become Lincoln County.

Due to white settler encroachment on their lands, Native American attacks during the 1770s and 1780s occurred frequently. In an attempt to stop these incursions, the Logan brothers, as well as others like George Rogers Clark, made strikes against the Indians into present-day Ohio and Tennessee. John Logan rose in the ranks of the Kentucky militia due mainly to his aggressive actions against Native American tribes.

Logan's military success led to political opportunities. In the 1780s and early 1790s he represented Lincoln County in the Virginia legislature. Back in Kentucky, Logan served in several of the statehood conventions. When statehood was achieved in 1792, he was elected to the state senate. Logan's service as senator was brief, though, as he was soon chosen as the state's treasurer, a position he held until his death in 1807. In 1799, he represented Franklin County in the state constitutional convention which drew up the commonwealth’s second constitution.