Butler County Genealogy Trails Kansas Bruce Allen Logan Bio

BUTLER COUNTY'S EIGHTY YEARS BIOS

BRUCE ALLEN LOGAN

(Transcribed by Lori DeWinkler)

Bruce Allen Logan, the youngest owner-manager of the oldest-established dry goods store in El Dorado, counts his friends by the hundreds by reason of his modesty, ability and unfailing courtesy. He has the reputation among his business associates of being always sincere and always “on the square.” He was born in El Dorado, January 7, 1890, and was educated in the El Dorado schools, working in his father’s store during vacation time and mornings, evenings, and Saturdays during the school year. After completing his studies in El Dorado High School, young Logan traveled for two and one-half years as a representative of the Denny Jewelry Company of Kansas City, Mo. He resigned that position in 1910 and returned to El Dorado to become actively identified with the Logan Dry Goods Store, established in 1898 by his father, Henry Morris Logan, who sold goods over the counter in El Dorado for fifty-six years. When Henry Morris Logan died in August 15, 1925, and two years later , his wife, Flora Morgan Logan, passed away, on the same date, August 15, Bruce Allen Logan bought from his brother, Basil, and his sister, Mrs. Olive Logan Jarnagin, all of the dry goods store property with the exception of a two-twelfths interest which his brother and sister retain. Thus it happened that the youngest member of the family became the majority owner of the concern and devotes his entire time to the same merchandise enterprise of which his father was owner and manager more than a half century. Bruce Logan is serving his second term as a director of the Chamber of Commerce. He is not an office seeker; politically, he is a Republican. Since boyhood he has been a member of the El Dorado Methodist Episcopal church. His fraternal connections include membership in Patmos Blue Lodge 97, A. F. & A. M., El Dorado Chapter No. 35, El Dorado Commandery No. 19, and Midian Shrine Temple, Wichita. Mr. Logan is a charter member of Edgar Dale Post American Legion and the El Dorado Country Club. He was mustered in at Fort Logan, Colorado, May 30, 1918, and served with the 14th Infantry, Company M, Regular Army. This company was first stationed at Fort Lawton, Washington, and then moved to Camp Dodge to form the 19th Regular Army Division. He was one of the thirty-six transferred from the original 14th Company to form a base for the 87th Infantry, and was discharged at Camp Funston on February 6, 1919. On February 22, 1921, Mr. Logan was married to Miss Lulu Attah Clements, in Newton. Mrs. Logan, who is one of the prepossessing younger matrons of El Dorado, is a constant assistant to Mr. Logan in the management of the Logan Store. She is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and former president of Circle Six and the Plus Ultra Class. Mrs. Logan was Worthy Matron of Andrina Chapter, Order of the Eastern Star, in 1923, and a past-president and now secretary-treasurer of the Past-Matrons’ Club, organized in 1928, and of which she is a charter member. She is a charter member and now president of the Junior Domestic Science Club, organized in 1921; a member of the American Legion Auxiliary, the Social Order of the Beauceant and the Tuesday bridge club. Mrs. Logan is of Irish and German descent, a daughter of John Vallandingham and Louisa Wilhelmina (August) Clements. John Vallandingham Clements was born in Bucyrus, Ohio, January 18, 1861, and died June 18, 1924, in El Dorado. Mrs. Clements was born in Wilshire, Ohio, June 25, 1865, and died August 2, 1926, in El Dorado. Mrs. Logan is one of six children. Her sisters are Mrs. H. A. Davis, Casey, Illinois; Mrs. Frank Oliver, El Dorado; Mrs. Ray Hauber, Bartlesville, Oklahoma; Mrs. Ralph Murphy, Great Bend; and her brother is Adolph Thomas Clements, of Madison. Bruce Logan’s parents, Henry Morris Logan and Flora Mae (Morgan) Logan, were natives of Ohio. Mr. Logan was born in Columbus Grove, on April 13, 1850. He came to Humboldt, Kansas, in 1867, and to El Dorado, Kansas in 1871 in a stage coach. A pioneer, Henry Logan delighted in recording the thrilling adventures of his early days in Kansas. Writing was his avocation and, in addition to his newspaper articles, he had published a volume of short stories entitled, “Fifty-four Years in Kansas.” Professionally, Mr. Logan was a merchant, but at heart he was a literati. Twice Mr. Logan answered the call of the government to help General Custer fight the Indians. In the first instance when he arrived at headquarters, the company was filled; and in the second, 1874, General Custer refused the company’s assistance with the curt, “I don’t want to be bothered with any more of those green Kansas soldiers.” Mr. Logan felt that the General erred because when he met the Indians the odds were against him, and the General and his entire company, with the exception of two men, were slain. In 1868, Mr. Logan joined a company going to Texas to bring back cattle. Crossing the Indian Territory in that day, he found to be a difficult and dangerous undertaking. All members had to sign papers absolving the company in case of accident or death from attacks by Indians. El Dorado, as he first saw it, was a struggling frontier village, with saloons and gambling dens. Cowboys wore the traditional wide sombreros and high-heeled boots. On Henry Logan’s first night in the town, Frank Gordy rode into El Dorado House, set up drinks for the house, lit his cigar with a five dollar bill, and shot out the bracket lamps. Mr. Logans, originally, were Scotch Highlanders, who during the reign of King Bruce, migrated to Ireland. After a brief stay in Ireland, three brothers came to America. James T. Logan, the paternal ancestor, was born in Ireland and died in Philadelphia. Before his famous march through Philadelphia, to head off the British, George Washington and twenty of his staff stayed overnight at Stenton—Logan’s country seat—in what is now the built section about Wayne Junction, Philadelphia. It is a fine brick house with handsomer wood paneling than any home of its period over Westover, while an upstairs library across the 55-foot front, housed the best collection of books in the Colonies. The house is now owned by the Colony Dames. The city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is located on property once owned by the Logan family. It is an interesting coincidence that there are exactly one hundred years difference in the ages of Bruce Logan and his paternal great grandfather, Joseph Logan, who was born in Pennsylvania in 1790, and later moved from Carrol County to Putnham County, Ohio. The grandfather died in 1844. Bruce Logan’s grandfather, John M. Logan, as born in 1816 near Titusville, Pennsylvania. His paternal great grandmother, Elizabeth Hixon Logan, the grandmother of the late Henry M. Logan, was a Reed, an “Irish Yankee”, from New Jersey, and of the same family as George Reed, a signer of the United States Constitution. The Logans were Scotch Presbyterians. On his maternal side, Mr. Logan traces his ancestry to John McClymond (name later changed to McClimans) who acted in the capacity of substitute in the Chester County militia of Philadelphia, during the Revolutionary War for which service he received twenty-five pounds. In 1812, he moved his family to Ohio. Mr. Logan’s mother, Flora Mae Morgan, came from Columbus, Ohio, to Kansas when she was four years old. Her father was a merchant and also a Methodist exhorter and class leader. Through the line of Mrs. Logan is traced an unbroken membership in the Methodist church since that church was founded in 1734. It is interesting that Mr. Logan’s great grandmother, Elizabeth Mathers, (Mrs. John Johnston) joined the church when she was telve years old; the grandmother, Margaret Johnston, (Mrs. Samuel Morgan) joined when twelve; a sister, Olive Logan Jarnagin, joined when she was twelve and a nephew, Logan Jornagin became affiliated with the church at the age of twelve. Elizabeth Mathers, wife of John Johnston, was born in Milford Center, Ohio, April 20, 1811, and died July 4, 1890. Her daughter, Margaret Johnston Morgan, was born November 3, 1832 and died November 6, 1910. The sixth child of Margaret Johnston Morgan was Flora Mae, born January 30, 1860, died August 15, 1927, in El Dorado. She came to Hartford, Kansas, with her parents in 1864 and to El Dorado in 1873. Here she was married to Henry M. Logan on August 20, 1879. The eldest child of Flora Mae (Morgan) and Henry M. Logan, is Olive Mae, born May 27, 1880, and married Eldon Jarnagin on December 11, 1907. The couple has one child, Logan, born January 16, 1911, in El Dorado. The second child is Basil Henry Logan, born February 8, 1888, and married on April 10, 1910, to Florence Wellwood, at Augusta, Kansas, and lives in Wichita. The couple has one child, Henry Bill, born November 27, 1924. His paternal grandfather liked the speak of him as Henry the Third. Bruce Logan, the subject of this sketch and his wife have no children.