Benjamin F. Logan
submitted by Laura Logan

Benjamin Franklin Logan, known to all as Frank, was born Nov 15 1878 in Centerville, Alabama (or West Blockton), the fourth child of Samuel Hunt logan and Mary Clark Collier. He died 10/5/1971 in Colorado City Texas.

Here are a few things he recalls from his childhood...

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"The first thing I can remember is going out to call a hired man to dinner. His name was Henry Coleman. So I was about two years old when I went out to call 'Come to dinner, Hammer Coman.' Now thats all I remember about my first home. The next thing I remember was crawling down the wagon tongue, when we moved to the Taylor Place in the Soaphill Community. Soaphill was named from a hill which was very hard traveling in wet weather because of the soapy sticky character of the mud. Parts of the road had pole laid close together like cross ties on a railroad. During muddy weather, wagons could travel on 'crosswaithing,' as I remember. This traveling made a terrible racket."

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He recalls that when they lived in the "Soaphill" district of Bibb County Alabama. One REAL STORMY night, a storm passed not far from the southeast of them, and all they could hear was old stumps and trees falling, which sounded like a team of horses crossing a plank bridge. After the storm, he heard a woman scream and that was all he remembered. He remembers a story about when he was about 8 years old, which he never will forget, and one which he says had the community disturbed, especially his parents. It was the time he got lost in the lone woods of Bibb County.

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These are just little memories more than stories. Here is one about Bibb County in the Civil War and the Collier plantation.

"My mother was a widow when my father, Sam Logan married her. Her first husband was quite a lot older than she, and owned a plantation, and all that went with a Southern Plantation. From what she told us, there must have been 30-40 slaves.

"There were cooks, housekeepers, maids, a blacksmith, a maid to comb her hair. They would do anything for the 'missus,' who was plenty kind to them but strict if needed. If she saw one being mistreated, she would go outside and order them to stop and turn him loose. The old man would always compalin that she was going to spoil all of the slaves.

"Wilson's raid occurred about that time, through that part of Alabama, before the war was over and slaves were not free yet. The officer in charge promised his men a free hand if they won their skirmish, and during the raid the Yanks really
cleaned things out. It was the Cavalry Division and the corn and the 'fodder' stack were gone in no time. Moither said they killed 40 hogs."

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I was looking over my papers and I came across a letter that was written to my grandfather in 1964. It was from Gulnare Logan who lived in Montgomery. She told my grandfather that a man in Centervill, D.S. Cottingham, who was running for Circuit Clerk, told her that he got a letter from my grandfather asking about his family. She told him of some relatives of his in Alabama, Mrs. Robert Thrash (?), Murrilla Wallace Huff, Ruth Oates (or Gates).

The other letter was written in 1961 from Floyd Ambrose of West Blockton. He was his second cousin. He said that we were related to Cary James of Brent and that his (Floyd's) great-grandfather was Jack Logan.

Can anyone help me with Jack Logan?

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This page was created August 25, 2000.