John Sublett Logan Jr.

John S. Logan, Jr., was born in the house at 605 Hall Street in St. Joseph, Missouri, on November 1, 1869, the third son of Dr. John S. Logan and Emma Puryear Cotton.

During his childhood, the family lived on a farm in Andrew County, then on a farm near the present Moila Club on Noyes Boulevard in St. Joseph. After that, they occupied a house on the south side of Frederick Avenue near the State Hospital, followed by a house on the southwest corner of Twelfth and Ridenbaugh Streets. The final move to 408 North Eleventh Street came when John was thirteen. In retrospect, the family of boys had an ideal childhood. They were permitted to keep many pets: rabbits, squirrels, raccoons, even on one occasion a monkey. They had ponies to ride and lived a healthy outdoor life. Their mother longed for a daughter, and finally heard of a little girl whose parents had died. Emma Logan brought her into the family and raised her as if she were her own daughter. That girl's son later occupied a leading position in Buchanan County, his fine record repaying many times over Emma's kindness to the orphaned girl.

John Logan attended the Webster School, Christian Brothers College, and Central High School. His first job was at Townsend & Wyatt's Dry Goods Company, but he did not care for the retail experience and he joined the Phoenix Brick Company of Mr. E. P. Halsey. That exposed him to the field of real estate and by 1895 when he was twenty-six years of age he had launched out into that field on his own.

John S. Logan, Jr., was married to Caroline Ashton Sheridan on November 20, 1899, at the Francis Street Methodist Church, South. She was the daughter of John Jay Sheridan and Louisa Morgan Ashton and the wedding reception was held at their home, 509 South Eighth Street. The wedding ceremony was performed by the Reverend W. F. Packard. Their first residence was at 1102 Felix Street, but they moved to an apartment at the southwest corner of Tenth and Felix Streets and their first child, a son, Sheridan A. Logan, was born there on December 9, 1900.

To help John Logan get started in the real estate business, his father's first cousins, Lewis and William Huggins, turned over to him for sale the lots on the west side of North Twenty-second Street between Moss Street and Marion Street. John purchased the first three lots just north of Moss Street for himself, and started the building of a house on Lot 3. His old friend Frank Tibbetts, who had known him at the Webster School, told of the move of the Logan family to Twenty-second Street. The home at 1912 North Twenty-second Street was almost finished. The work had gone on through the summer of 190I. One day early in September, Frank saw a spring wagon loaded with furniture drive out Twenty-second Street with a young woman and a child in arms seated beside the driver. Frank knew that the Logans were about to move into their new home. Late in the af. ternoon Frank saw his friend John Logan step off the street car-a short branch line which connected with the Frederick Avenue line. Logan called out to him:

"Frank have you heard the news?

"No, John, what is it?'

"They've shot McKinley, said Logan.

And that is how the first night of the Logan family on Twenty-second Street is dated--September 6, 1901.

In 1903, after retirement from the presidency of the Sheridan Clayton Paper Company, John J. Sheridan joined his son-in-law, John Logan, in the real estate business. They carried on as Sheridan & Logan at 610 Edmond Street. On July 1, 1903, John and Carrie's second son was born, Thomas A. Logan, and on January 22, 1907, a daughter, Mary Louise Logan.

The family group was a large one; four households were in operation. In addition to their own home, there was Ashton Place, home of Carrie Logan's grandparents; Hawthorne Hill, home of her parents; and 408 North Eleventh Street, home of John's parents. Nearly all Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's dinners were held at one of the places, and many Sunday dinners through the year. Black Sally was a great attraction at Ashton Place; the warmth of the informal welcome at the Sheridan household made that a happy place; and the more formal atmosphere of North Eleventh Street was eased by the remarkable meals which were produced. Both Dr. and Mrs. Logan were Kentuckians and carried on their family traditions of a bountiful table. Their dinners were likely to start with oyster cocktail and end with ice cream. The bachelor uncles, Tom, Louis, and Milton, were usually present, and the adults were usually offered a 'toddy before dinner. Dr. Logan was a short man, as was his mother, Mrs. O'Neill; he wore whiskers, and continued the custom of doctors, always smelling of iodoform. He was jolly and a wonderful host.

John's real estate business was successful. He became an expert on the delicate timing necessary to purchase a block of land on the outskirts of the city, divide it into acre plots or lots, and then sell it to prospective homeowners with a contract calling for time payments. It became a sort of long-term credit banking business. He was an excellent judge of character, so that his contracts were usually paid out. The business was incorporated as the Sheridan-Logan Investment Company and the office was moved from Edmond Street to 108 North Seventh.

On North Twenty-second Street, the Logan house at 1912 was admired, and Mr. R. M. Bachelor asked if John would consider selling it. It was possible, if time could be allowed for the building of a new house on Lot 2 just to the south. So in the summer of 1910 a new house was built with Gray Powell as architect, working out Carrie's ideas which included a large living room for family use and for entertaining.

Two more children were born: a little girl, Emma Caroline, on April 21, 1909, who died in a few days; then on July 27, 1910, was born a third son, named for his father, John Sublett Logan III. As he learned to talk, he would call for his toys-“my ball, my teddy bear, etc., so that he came to refer to himself as 'My. The name caught on and he was thereafter-for his six years of life-known as 'My.

The older children attended the Noyes School and later the Webster, where their father had gone. Mary Louise and My attended Miss Mima Raffington's kindergarten classes. The last child of the family, John Byrne Logan, was born September 26, 1914.

The death of Thomas Ashton in 1906 and of Dr. John S. Logan in 1909 did not greatly change the family life because their households went on. But in 1916 two of the Ashton great-uncles died, and in 1917 great-grandmother Ashton followed them. In August 1917 Grandfather Sheridan died, but the hardest blow of all for everyone was the tragic death of little My, just six and a half, on January 29, 1917, of spinal meningitis. He had started to the second class of the newly organized Whittier School just across the street from 1906 North Twenty-second Street in the fall of 1916 when he was six years old. The family atmosphere was never the same after that. Ashton Place and Hawthorne Hill were no more. For the Logan children a large part of the richness of their childhood had become memories.

John Logan stuck close to his work. Before his death, John J. Sheridan had been in the office, and before their marriages both Lucinda Sheridan and Howard Sheridan had worked on the books. After Louie left, a replacement was needed so Miss Margaret McAleer was employed when she graduated from her business schooling. She remained with John Logan until his death. John took little time off for vacation, but in most years he had a couple of weeks away in Wisconsin for fishing. He took up golf, and perhaps once a week he would join Lou and Will Huggins and Hugh Rowland at the Country Club. .

The children were growing up and John was determined that they should have the educational opportunities that he had missed. Sheridan, the oldest son, graduated from Central High School in 1918, and he was sent to Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, for one year, and then to Harvard College. Thomas, the second son, was sent to the Berkshire School in Massachusetts and then to Yale. Mary Louise, the daughter, was sent to Ward-Belmont School in Nashville, Tennessee. As the children grew older Carrie was able to devote more of her time to her outstanding literary gifts. She wrote a number of poems and, eventually, one novel.

Recognition of John Logan's pre-eminence in the real estate field came in the tender to him of a directorate in the Bartlett Trust Company, an honor which he appreciated. However, his health had begun to deteriorate about 1922, and on March 17, 1925, he died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

The next few years were difficult ones for Carrie, and the entire family leaned on John's great friend Marmaduke B. Morton, who saw them through. John Byrne Logan was still in school; Mary Louise attended the University of Missouri; Tom was at Yale, graduating in 1926; Sheridan had graduated from Harvard College in 1923 and had gone to work at the First National Bank, New York City. Byrne Logan went through his schooling and attended the University of Missouri, graduating in 1936, and then completing two years of graduate work at the Harvard Business School. Tom also attended the Harvard Business School and joined the Automatic Electric Company. In 1940 both Tom and Byrne, as reserve officers, were called into military service. On October 3, 1941, Carrie died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage,

The greatest sorrow in the lives of John Logan and Carrie Sheridan was the death of their third son, little "My, in January 1917, when he was six and a half. Born in 1910, he had attended Miss Mima Raffington's Kindergarten. In the fall of 1916 he entered the first grade of the second class to be started in the newly organized Whittier School, a residence at 2001 North Twenty-second Street, very near his home. Somehow, he was stricken with spinal meningitis and, after severe suffering, died.

Years later, Carrie wrote the following verse.

UNAFRAID

Like a flower you bloomed in my arms;

Like a flower you tarried awhile,

And the intricate deeps of my soul

Were illumined anew by your smile.

By the grace of the fast-fleeting flower,

Born to bud, born to bloom, or to fade;

By the fragrance you left at my side, I shall stand unafraid-unafraid.

You lingered a time all too brief,

Lovely flower with uplifted face

Tho’ you blossomed, and, blossoming, died You have left me your courage of race.

 

The way to the garden is dark,

The garden wherein you have strayed;

But the path is so sweet from your tread,

I shall walk unafraid-unafraid.

Caroline Sheridan Logan (1875-1941)