Baptist preacher, Joseph Logan, died in Warren County, Kentucky — the portion which became Allen County — in October of 1812. Despite his pioneering work founding churches in south-central Kentucky, serving their pulpits, and working in close harmony with the other contemporary “master builders” (J.H. Spencer’s phrase), John Hightower and Alexander Devin, somehow Joseph Logan’s grave became lost to memory. This is also true for his wife, Anna “Annie” Bias Logan.
Around the time of the centennial of Bethlehem Baptist Church (1901) in Allen County, Kentucky, the church minutes show three men were appointed to find his grave site and place a marker on it. As far as is known, we believed they were unsuccessful in this quest.
When Bethlehem Baptist Church had its bicentennial in 2001, the church again attempted to find Joseph Logan’s grave. They were unable to.
But then there is this….a newspaper article in the Richmond Climax, Richmond, Kentucky, issue of 20 January 1902:
(Note: Joseph Logan came to Kentucky from South Carolina, but he was born in Virginia. Some believe New Roe to be the oldest settlement in Allen County.)
Richmond, Kentucky, is far away from Allen County. That means that the Richmond Climax must have picked up the article from a local Allen County or Warren County newspaper. Hopefully, a local newspaper has more details of the original story. I’ve written to the Allen County Historical Society, Bethlehem Baptist Church, and the Western Kentucky University Library in Bowling Green hoping this will spur renewed efforts to find Joseph and Annie’s grave site.
As far as the article itself? Either this was a false alarm or else Joseph Logan’s grave was lost, then found, then lost again. Hopefully, some microfilmed newspaper(s), church records, or cemetery search with probes for buried stones will solve this (at least) century old mystery. We will, of course, keep you posted.
logan connections 