Robert Reynolds Logan was born July 20, 1814, in Shelby County, Kentucky, on a farm, four miles west of Shelbyville. This homestead was a story and a half brick, and I am told a part of it is still preserved. He was a son of Alexander Logan and Jane McCampbell. He bore a striking resemblance to the mental and physical Logan characteristics as mentioned in Green's "Historic Families of Kentucky." He was by nature retiring and modest, was naturally taciturn, but when aroused was lively and vivacious in conversation, possessed the traditional Irish wit, and was good in repartee. He bore locally the title of colonel. In the times called "Muster days," when all able-bodied men over twenty and under fifty, met for military drill, he won the honor of Colonel. I remember his military outfit, his cocked hat and plume, his coat with silver fringed epaulets. He held the office of Squire from 1862 to 1870. Greatest of all was his innate and unfaltering Christian character. He had early been imbued with the principles and practice of a sound moral, and religious traininig, received from good and pious parentage, and clung with unfaltering faith to the religion of his ancestors, who had suffered so much privation and peril to maintain. He embraced religion at the early age of sixteen and made a public profession with the united churches of Shiloh and Olivet in Shelby County, Ky. He was ruling elder of the Auburn Presbyterian Church in Lincoln County, Mo., for thirty-six years, and lived to see all of his eleven children that came to maturity gathered under the sheltering wing of the Saviour. My mind recalls the time when a large circle gathered at evening time around the big open fireplace in the old homestead, and my father always led in family worship, reading a scripture lesson, and singing a hymn, when every member of the family joined in the singing. But the voices of that hearth are still and the circle that gathered there is broken, only in memory.
On October 22, 1884, after life's battles had been fought, death came like the benediction that follows after prayer. The union of Robert Reynolds Logan and Elizabeth Eleanor Irvin proved to be a most happy one. I never heard an angry word, or saw an angry look pass between them. They were blessed with ten children all of whom lived to maturity save one. They were as follows:
On Dec. 20, 1895, I was elected matron of the Cornelia memorial Orphan's Home, New Albany, Ind., which place I filled for nine years. Coming as it did at a time in my lonely life, it furnished me an occupation, and filled my mind with many happy surroundings, for I found the care of the children very enjoyable, many of whom have gone out into the world making useful men and women.