James Dunn of Jessamine Co., Ky., Mar. 4, 1819, wife Elizabeth, one-third of my land, and a negro; I give to my daughter Martha Dunn, a choice of my horses, to my son Alexander Dunn, a mare, residue to all my children; viz., John, Martha, James and Alexander.
Id. id. D. 41. Mar. 10, 1817. James Dunn and Elizabeth, his wife, to John Dunn, all of Jessamine County, Ky., for $200, three hundred and sixteen acres on Clear Creek. Elizabeth Doak and John Dunn settled in Shelby County, Missouri. They had thirteen children, as far as I can recall, were James, Robert, David, John, Frank, Preston Breckenridge, three daughters, Jane, m. _____ Priest, and had three children; Sarena, married _____ _____ and had three children. They moved to Georgetown, Pettis Co. (1860).
Susan lived a long and useful life unmarried. Preston Breckenridge is the only one now living atid resides in Monroe City, Monroe Co., Mo. One of his sons is cashier of a bank at Shelbyville, Mo.
They lived one year in Shelby County, Ky., and in March, 1848, moved to Lincoln County, Missouri, where they spent the rest of their lives. She possessed the reputed characteristics of the Irvine's, light hair, florid complexion, energetic, resourceful, industrious, she kept things stirring from sun up to sundown, even into the late hours of the night. She could bring the largest results, from the least capital, of any person I ever knew. Her children went respectably clad from the toil of her own hands. It was she who spun and wove the cloth for our colthes, spun and wove out of flax the table linen, spread upon our table (and it was fine); she spun and knit our socks and stockings. It was she who taught us our individual self reliance, who gave us our lessons of rectitude and modesty, and taught us to reverence our father as a dignitary of the household; and never under any circumstances, before one of her children, took issue with him about parental government. Her cares and sorrows were many, but, like her husband, she trusted the guiding hand of an overruling dispenser of all things, which gave her strength to bear life's burdens.
I visited my mother's home, and the home of my childhood in August and September, 1895. She was not well at the time, but concealed her sufferings. On Nov. 8, same year, I received word to come to her at once, and on the 9th I reached her bedside, and found her suffering from an advanced stage of cardiac dropsy. I never witnessed such suffering, but notwithstanding her bodily pain and anguish, her mind was clear. She never let the hour for morning worship pass unnoticed even to the last morning, when we thought she would not notice, and had decided to leave it off; but at the hour, reminded us that it was time to assemble for worship, when we all assembled, for our last, alltogether. She passed away at the dawn of day, November 20,
1893. Her children will appear under head of Robert Reynolds Logan.
Bryson I. Seward married, second time, Miss Florence Hedge, of
Franklin, Ind. They had five children, 1 Iris and 2 Ivy, twins. Ivy died
aged four months, Iris married J. A. Wood and has one child; they
live at 36 Kenwood ave., Pittsburg, Pa.; 3 Nettie, m. T. G.. Coleman.
They have a large family, live at Colby, Washington; 4 Eugene (John)
Seward,
married 1st, Nellie May Swarts (daughter of Wylie Swarts of Clark
County, Ind.) ; one child, Wylie Bryson Seward. He married, 2nd time, Miss
Jessie F. McCarty, of Jeffersonville. They have five children, Iris
Jeannette, Florence Leslie, Giles Dickson Seward, Jessie Eugene and Charles
Frederick Seward; 5 Pearl, married twice. She twice, she and her mother live near Allegheny
City, Pa.
I am inclined before I finish this sketch to pay a short tribute of respect to my dearly beloved uncle, James D. Irvin, whose life in many ways has been one to be emulated, and whose influence for uprightness has been felt in his home and in the community. His honesty and integrity was never questioned. In his family he was gentle and indulgent, ruled by the strong power of love. His home was a heaven and he sought to make happy everything that came within its domain. Notwithstanding his gentler qualities, he was brave, courageous, and portrayed the characteristics of the Irvines, who, it is said, "were second to none on any battlefield." And when at the breaking out of the Civil War and a call was made for recruits, he responded and raised, and took to camp at North Madison, Ind., one hundred men and horses, at his
own expense, until mustered into service. For which service he never asked or received from the government any remuneration. After being mustered in and commissioned Captain of Company B, Third Indiana Cavalry, he was ordered to Washington, D. C. Afterwards served in the army of the Potomac. One year's service rendered him helpless from rheumatism, from which he never recovered sufficiently to go back. The same disability has confined him to his home and bed for fifteen years. Although he never returned to his army life, he still did service for his country to the end. He possibly inherited his military enthusiasm from his ancestors. His grandfather, Samuel Irvin, was a Revolutionary soldier, as was also his great grandfathers, James Dunn and James Brewster.
He learned the trade of carpentry from his father, and for many years was a carpenter and contractor in Corydon, Ind. When about thirty-five years old he studied dentistry with Dr. Carter of Bloomington, Ind., and for about thirty years practiced dentistry in Corydon. When quite a young man read law and medicine, and notwithstanding he never practiced either, his advice was often sought for in both. He was often importuned to enter the political field but declined. He held a few local oflices. He was raised to the high order of Masonry in 1853, and served a number of terms as Master of Pisgah Lodge No. 32., F. A. M., of Corydon, Ind. He was profoundly temperate and strictly adhered to his convictions, and never tasted intoxicants, not even for medicinal purposes. One of his mottoes that he strictly followed was, "Whatever is worth doing, is worth doing well."
I came to his home when a school girl, over forty-seven years ago, and I can truly say his influence and instructions have been of incalculable value to me in moulding my life and character. He died Oct. 23, 1913, past ninety years old. The facts of a man's life that can be recorded when he is gone, as a rule, but poorly convey an adequate idea of what his life really was.
The following tribute is not overdrawn:
The committee appointed to draft a suitable Memorial on the death of Doctor James D. Irvin, begs to submit the following:
In the fullness of time, the Grand Master of the Universe has called from "labor to refreshment" our worthy brother, James D. Irvin, who was a faithful member of the lodge for so many years, and who we believe lived up to the principles and teachings of masonry as he understood them. He had been a diligent and close student of the mysteries taught therein, and was always ready to obey all signs and
summons sent him by his lodge, and the younger members especially, had great respect for his views and instructions in the working of the lodge, and although on account of his disabilities, he was for so many years unable to attend the lodge, yet he never lost his interest therein; and the lodge feels that it has lost one of its "old land marks" as it were, and deeply deplores the loss of brother Irvin; but sincerely hopes he has been transplanted to the Grand Lodge above, where we, if we are true and faithful, may be able to rejoin him when we are called away.
Doctor Irvin's life was a model in many ways. His integrity was of the highest type, but the strongest element in his character, and the one to be emulated most, was his tenacious clinging to the loftiest ideals, even to the minutest detail.
He never did "things by halves," and was never content with anything but the best. This striving for the truth and the right, was manifest as a man, as a citizen, as a soldier, as a dentist, as a carpenter, as a companion and as a friend. Therefore in truth he is not dead, but his worthy and splendid life still lives and stands forth as a beacon light to guide and ennoble all who came in contact with him.
We recommend that a copy of this Memorial be sent to the family.
C. M. MILLER,
C. W. THOMAS,
JOHN HETH,
Committee.
In Scotland few surnames are more ancient than that of Logan. As early as 1278 it appears in the Royal Charter. In 1329 a knight named Robert Logan was in the train of barons who bore the heart of Bruce to the Holy Land.
In the reign of the Bruces the principal family of the name obtained by marriage the barony of Restalrig, lying between Edinburg and the sea, on which the greater part of South Leith is now built. To such a height did this family attain that Sir Robert Logan of Restalrig married a daughter of Robert II by Euphemia Ross, and afterwards constituted Admiral of Scotland. Then there was an ancient Celtic clan of the name, one of whose chiefs married a Fraser, and in a feud with his wife's family was slain. Another branch lived in Ayrshire, and was designated as "of Logan" -- (Scottish Nation). The family which is the subject of this sketch cannot be definitely traced to any of those which have been mentioned. For generations before any of them came to America, they had been plain people in Ireland, accustomed to rely upon themselves for their individual respectability, as well as for the
means of subsistence, and were sturdily independent. Their tradition is that their ancestor was a Presbyterian who fled from Ayrshire to escape the persecution of John Graham, the Bloody Claverhouse, and, with others of his name and kindred, found shelter and refuge among the Protestant plantations in the north of Ireland. Lurgan was the locality of his home.
In the following years, descendants of this one found their way to Pennsylvania, whose colonial treasurer, James Logan, for whom the Mingo chief was named was in no distant degree their kinsman. Two of these, John (not James) and David Logan, soon left Pennsylvania, and settled in Augusta County, Virginia, and both were soldiers in the French and Indian wars. Their names appear upon the official list. John settled near New Providence church in what is now Rockbridge County, Virginia. He had a son James, who married Hannah Irvine (or Erwin) the daughter of a Presbyterian preacher, by whom he had eight sons and four daughters.
One of those sons, John Logan, married Rachael McPheeters. a daughter of Wm. McPheeters, who married Rachael Moore, and a sister of Rev. Wm. McPheeters, whose first wife was a daughter of Major John McDowell of Fayette Co., Ky. This John Logan and Rachael McPheeters were the parents of Rev. Eusebius Logan, who died in 1827, and Rev. Robert Logan of Fort Worth, Texas; of Joseph Logan and the late Mrs. Theophilus Gamble of Augusta Co., Va., Alexander Logan, another son of James and Hannah, moved to Kentucky; one of Alexander's sons was a Presbyterian minister, and married a Miss Venable of Shelby County and Rev. James Venable Logan of Central University, is their son.
Robert Logan, a third son of James and Hannah, was a Presbyterian minister. Rev. Robert Logan had the refusal of the tutorship in Hampden Sidney College, when the celebrated John Holt Rice applied for it. He was born in Augusta County, Virginia, in 1769; was educated at Liberty Hall; he visited Kentucky, and while there he married Margaret Moore, from Walker's Creek, Augusta County, Virginia. She came from the same Rutherford-Walker stock, which gave to this country, and to the Presbyterian church; Dr. John Poage Campbell, the McPheeters, the Browns (descendants of Rev. Samuel), the Stuarts, and so many other pious and able divines.
Rev. Robert Logan returned to Virginia and finally settled in Fincastle County, where he was for many years the frontier minister. The late John Benjamine Irwin Logan of Salem, Roanoke County, was his son. Joseph D. Logan, a fourth son of James and Hannah, was another Presbyterian minister, and one of distinction; he married Jane Butler Dandridge, a descendant in the sixth generation of Pocahontas, and of the family from which came the wife of President Washington. "In
the dim past a descendant of Pocahontas entered into the Logan family and finally brought forth General John A. Logan." Their son, James W. Logan, married a Miss S. W. Strothers. After the death of his first wife, Rev. Joseph D. Logan married Louisa Lee, one of whose children is Dr. Joseph P. Logan of Atlanta, Georgia. Benjamine Logan, a fifth son of James and Hannah, was the father of the late J. A. Logan of Staunton, Va. One of the daughters of James and Hannah married James McCampbell (not McKinney, as the author gave it).
"The preaching characteristics of the Irvines, as well as the Rutherfords, Walkers, Moors, McPheeters, seem to have come out strong in this branch of the Logan family." -- [Waddel's Annals.]
Copied from Green's history of "Historic Families of Kentucky." I quote from Green, because this is a good history of our own immediate family, in a few words, correcting two mistakes, however. It was John Logan, whose son James married Hannah Irvine. Further on in the same chapter he corrects the mistake, "It was probably John who was a contributing member of New Providence church of Rockbridge County, Virginia, who was the father of James, who married Hannah Irvine." James and Hannah's daughter Margaret married James McCampbell, one of whose descendants, Mrs. Georgia A. Speed, lives in Louisville, Kentucky.
There were three Logans located in Augusta County, Va., in early times, David, John and James. It is evident David and John were brothers, they bear a striking resemblance, in character and family names.