Joseph "Black Joe" Logan
Joseph Logan was born a slave in the State of North Carolina, about 1797 or 1798. He was, of course, kept in ignorance of reading or writing, and was brought up as slaves were at that time. He belonged to the Smith family, then a prominent family in North Carolina, and a daughter of which had married the Reverend William Williamson. He resided in Rutherford County. In about 1817, he contracted a slave marriage with Jemima, a black girl of about seventeen years of age, the property of another branch of the Smith family. Logan was then called Smith, after the family name of his master, John Smith. He was of ordinary height, weight about one hundred and forty pounds, and was a v-shaped man, with broad shoulders, and muscular in every fibre of his frame.
He was as black as a coal, and slave as he was, he was a man, in the full sense of the term, and would take no affront, either for himself, or for any of his friends. While of ordinary sire, he was more powerful and muscular than most of the men of his race, and would not hesitate to use his great strength when occasion required.
He was a favorite servant of his master, and usually travelled with him on all of his journeys. In 1803, his master's sister, Mrs. Jane Smith Williamson, emigrated to Ohio with her husband, and they had taken twenty-seven of his race with them, to set them free.
Joseph had accompanied his master to Ohio on a visit to his master's sister, between 1806 and 1816, and had some idea of a free State, and the condition of the freemen of his race. In 1819, by the death of the owner of his wife, she was willing to pay a legacy of $300 to Jane Smith Williamson, his master's niece, and he knew that she was liable to be sold to pay the legacy, and to be sent to the slave market in New Orleans, and this probable event was freely talked of in the family. His feelings, while such an event was impending, cannot be told. Fortunately for him, Miss Jane Williamson would not permit his wife to be sold, but elected to take her and her two children in satisfaction of the legacy. He heard of this, but did not know what it meant, until Miss Williamson came from Ohio, and stated that she would take Jemima and her two children. In the meantime, one of Jemima's children died, leaving her with but one. Logan begged Miss Williamson to buy him, and take him to Ohio with his wife; but she was unable to do so. for want of means.
It was the tenth of March, 1821, when Miss Williamson and her brother, afterward the Reverend Thomas Smith Williamson, started North. Each of them rode horseback, and the third horse carried Jemima and her child. Logan was not permitted to bid his wife and child good-bye, nor did he know they were started until after they had gone, and it was some time after they left before he learned of their destination. He simply knew that Miss Williamson intended to take Jemima away with her when she went. That same summer his master visited Ohio and took Logan with him. John Smith visited his sister, Mrs. Williamson, and Logan got to see his wife and spent some time with her, and it was there that he told her that he intended to be a free man, and a slave no longer.
Logan's master had been uniformly kind to him, and had promised that he would, at some future time, give him his freedom. After spend ing several months in Ohio, John Smith took his slave Logan, and went back to North Carolina. Logan took note of the entire route of their return, and determined to escape at the first opportunity.
He made friends with the slaves on his route, returning, so that they would remember him, and aid him. As a precautionary measure to his escape, he privately beat and whipped all the slave-hunting dogs in the vicinity of his home, so that they would refuse to follow him.
He started in the summer of 1822, the next summer after his return from Ohio. While his master would not follow him, knowing that he would never be taken alive, other slave hunters of the vicinity undertook to recapture him, but the dogs refused their accustomed duties. When they found the trail of Logan, they sneaked back to their masters, and thus, the hunt had to be abandoned. But Logan was pursued at several points along his route by strange dogs. At one time he killed two dogs with a hatchet, which he carried with him, and wounded two others so badly that they had to be killed. At another time, he plunged into a river to escape the dogs. Two of them swam into the river after him, and he seized them, one at a time, and held their heads under the water until they were drowned. He could not be taken by dogs, as he either frightened them so badly they would not follow him, or he would fight and kill them before the hunters could come up to them. At one time, he was so closely pushed that he was forced to abandon the clothing which he carried, and which was of the best quality, the gift of his master. At another time he was so closely pursued by two men on horseback, that they were within a few feet of him. They ordered him to halt, but he refused, whereupon they shot at him, but missed him. He traveled mostly by night, and followed the North Star. Wherever he could, be walked in the streams to cut off the scent of the dogs, for these often followed him a short distance. He knew the general course of the mountains and streams he had crossed before, and kept to the North all the time.
He went from North Carolina to the Poage settlement In Tennessee, where he was acquainted. There he learned that Colonel James Poage had taken his slaves North, and set them free. At this point he came very near being being recaptured by professional slave hunters. His master had not pursued him, and would not. He knew, and had been told, that Logan would not be recaptured, and would die rather than suffer such a thing. He was, therefore, willing to suffer his loss; but this did not prevent slave hunters anywhere along his route from seeking to recapture him.
The rivers on his route he swam, where he could not wade them; but he swam none, until he had first inspected them by daylight, and then swam them at night. Most of his travelling was done between midnight and morning, and on clear nights. He made his inquiries for the route, of slaves, of children, or of white men, whom he met alone. He would inquire for a route, but would never take the one he inquired for, but would travel parallel with it and away from it.
Occasionally, he ventured to travel by daylight. He swam the Ohio River near Ashland, Kentucky, and started westward, inquiring for the Reverend William Williamson, who was well known in Ohio. He thought it safe to travel by daylight in a free State. Not far east of Portsmouth, he met two men, who were willing to be man hunters. They recognized him as a fugitive from labor, and told him they believed they would take him and remand him to slavery. He picked one of them up, and threw him over an adjoining fence. Then the next one concluded that Logan was too powerful a darkey for him to tamper with. They gave him directions, however, to find the Reverend William Williamson, and he took a detour, miles to the north. Near Bentonville, he met a stone cutter who attempted to arrest him. Logan told him he could not take him South unless he killed him first. He then hid him self until the next morning.
"The Beeches," where Rev. Williamson resided, was about a mile and a half from Bentonville, and his wife resided there. Next morning, after his adventure with the Stone cutter, his wife was the first person he met, and that must have been a joyful meeting for two poor, black people, who felt that they had no friends on tarth but each other.
Jemima had been looking anxiously for her husband, as he had told her, when on the visit the year before, that he intended to come to her, or die in the attempt.
Logan's master knew very well where he was. In fact, several slave hunters wrote him, offering to take Logan back to slavery for a suitable reward, but the master declined to give any reward. He knew that Logan would not be taken alive, and dead, he had no value.
Logan made enemies, who wrote his master where he was, and to come and take him; but the master declined to attempt to recapture him. Logan gave it out freely that if any attempt were made to recapture him, he would kill as many of his captors as he could, and would die himself, before he would be retaken. He had demonstrated his physical prowess on many occasions, and his statement was strictly believed.
In Ohio, Logan was a part of the Underground Railroad system, and he helped every runaway slave he could, to freedom. At one time, twelve slave catchers had surrounded his cabin, but he and his friends got away from them. Once, he accompanied the late Thomas Means to Bentonville. Some of the citizens expressed surprise that a fugitive slave should go abroad so boldly. Mr. Means told them that if any of them were fools enough to get killed trying to recapture Logan, the community could very well spare them. It was a common thing in West Union, Ohio, after Logan removed there, for anyone who got angry with Logan, to write to his master to come and take him back; but the master, having promised to free him, and Logan having freed himself, declined to take any steps or to offer any reward to reclaim him.
Logan, like Hercules, was in the habit of carrying a great club with him wherever he went, and it was well known that he would use it on dogs or men, as occasion required. Once, he was caught without his club, and was attacked by three men. They were all armed, and he was not. They attempted to seize him, but before they could do anything, he knocked them all three down, disarmed all of them, and then told them that he was glad he had forgotten his club that day, as otherwise, no doubt he would have killed them.
Barney Mullen lived near West Union, and would come to the village, get drunk and over-awe every one by his prowess. 'He had the common Irish prejudice against a negro, and one day struck Logan with his fist. Logan staggered for several yards, but did not fall. As he recovered, he came back at Mullen with a rush, and butted him over. He then pounded him well, and filled his eyes with sand from the highway It took Barney two hours to wash the sand from his eyes. Soon after, he left the country in disgust, emigrating to Illinios. He declared he would not live in a country where a negro could whip a white man.
Logan was fond of being about the hotels and public stables in West Union, and handling horses. He was a follower and attendant of some of the fast young men of West Union, notably, of Bill Lee. One day in 1849, Lee was drunk, and handling a revolver in his right hand. He dropped it on the floor, and it was discharged, the ball lodging in Logan's great toe. The wound brought on lockjaw, of which Logan died. He was thus carried off in his prime, with a constitution, which, in the ordinary course of nature, would have lasted him to the age of ninety.
Logan learned to read after he came to Ohio, and there is a story that his freedom was purchased of his master for $200, of which he contributed $100 himself, and $100 was contributed by his friends. I am led to believe that this story is not true; but it was current in his lifetime for many years before his death. Logan, no doubt, gave it countenance, for it served as a protection against the man hunters. It is said that Logan's master visited Ohio several times after Logan's escape and always saw him and conversed with him on those occasions.
On the first visit after Logan's escape, the master asked Logan to return to North Carolina, urging the kind treatment he had always received. Logan admitted that, but said that he had escaped to be with his wife, and preferred to remain in Ohio. The master told him that he would never send for him, and gave him $10, assuring him of his good wishes.
Jemima, the wife of Logan, survived until September 25, 1885, when she died at the supposed age of eighty-five. Logan left several children. Joseph Logan, his son, at the age of sixty-one, is a resident of West Union. He is a quiet, peaceable citizen, respected by all. Logan also left a daughter, who is married and has a family of children; one girl of which is a music teacher, and has a class of white pupils.
Jane Williamson, who set Jemima free, at a great sacrifice to herself, survived until the twenty-fourth of March, 1895, when she passed away at the great age of ninety-three. The history of the world contains no nobler act than the freeing of Jemima by Jane Williamson, and no more daring adventure than that of the escape of Logan.
From "History of Adams County, Ohio from its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time" - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers - West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900