NOW A TALE OF THE LOGUES IN IDAHO

Descendants of Adam Logue (b. 1751) - my 4th great-grandfather, of County Londonderry, Northern Ireland.

This was written by Wesley W. Craig, Ph.D., my cousin, from South Utah.

January 1999

The origins of our Logue family have been traced, with certainty, to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where Adam Logue (b. 1751) reports that he served in the Revolutionary War. In this report Adam states that he was born "in 1751 in County of Derry in Ireland". Apparently he had no confirmation of this information, other than "the verbal communication of my mother". Efforts to validate his birth or residence in Ireland have thus far been unsuccessful. Part of the problem is uncertainty regarding the parentage of Adam.

Map of County Derry/Londonderry

County flower

It is possible that Adam’s father may have been a George Logue. An Heir Distribution document from the Orphan’s Court of Carlisle, Pa. dated 13 May 1788 attests that a George Logue produced a petition for his father, George Logue (deceased) which indicated that the elder George’s wife was Elizabeth, and that his heirs included seven children: George, William, Adam, John, Joseph, Elizabeth and Mary.

Unfortunately, there is another Adam Logue that turns up; he dies 21 Aug 1799 in Carlisle, PA., while our Adam Logue moves west to the Sinnamahoning River area of north-central Pennsylvania, and dies there on 4 April 1836. We do not know, for sure, which of these two Adams was the son of the above mentioned George.

Several professional genealogists (Maybel Swanson & Dr.Charles A. Fisher) have tackled the early Pennsylvania Logue family in the past and have come up scratching their heads trying to sort out the early Pennsylvania Logues.

I made a trip to Northern Ireland in 1997 with the express purpose of attempting to locate our Logue ancestors in County Londonderry . I spent nearly a week at the N. Ireland Public Records Office researching the records. (My results are summarized in a report I made in February 1997. However, no clarification of our Logue ancestry surfaced from that investigation (searching on an Adam Logue and on George Logue).

After living/working in Carlisle during the Revolutionary War, Adam reportedly moves to York County, Pa., then to Northumberland and afterwards to Lycoming County, Pa., eventually settling in Potter County, Pa.

One report states that three Logues (supposedly brothers and sons of our Adam) settled at the mouth of the First Fork (Sinnamahoning, Cameron Co.) in North Central Pennsylvania in the years 1816-1817. These were George (b.1789), Archibald (b. 1793) and Thomas (b.1794). Adam is not mentioned as having accompanied his sons.

By my records George’s (the older brother) mother was a "Leverson" (Adam’s first marriage). While Archibald and Thomas were sons of Adam and Nancy Sterrett (Adam’s second marriage). Thus, Archibald and Thomas were half-brothers to George.

Adam (b. 1851) apparently arrived in First Fork, Cameron, Pennsylvania either with or shortly after the arrival of his sons. This is substantiated by the birth and death of his daughter Adeline Thankful Logue (b. 1820, d. 1820) by his third wife Mary. Adeline was buried in the Jericho Cemetery at Sinnamahoning, Cameron Co., Pa.

Sinnamahoning State Park, Cameron Co., PA

Our ancestor was the above mentioned Archibald Logue (b. 1793 at Carlisle, Pa.) Archibald had thirteen children (by one wife), among whom was our ancestor, Adam Leverson Logue (b. 1818 in Grove Twp., Cameron County, Pa.), born shortly after the arrival of the three Logue brothers). Archibald apparently lived his entire life in the area, and died some time after the birth of his last child (1839), though we have no record of his death.

Adam Leverson Logue (b.1818), (Archibald’s third son), had eight children. Adam L. lived his life in Cameron and Potter counties (adjacent to each other) and died in 1893. His oldest child, our ancestor, was George Alexander Logue (b. 1841 in the settlement of Logue, Potter Co., Pa.).

George Alexander was married twice. Children of his first marriage to Sarah A. Sweet (b.1841, d. 1882) were three boys: John S., Frederick S. and Thomas E. After Sarah’s death he remarried to Aurilla Ervay (b. 1845, d. 1900) by whom he had one daughter, (my grandmother). Bessie LePet Logue (b. 1885).

In Potter County our Logue family line, in addition to farming, engaged in a mercantile business.

There is a fascinating story of how our Logues from Pennsylvania got to Valley County, Idaho. To show how historical events could have unforseen circumstances for the Logue family, I need to mention the discovery of gold in the Yukon Territory of northwestern Canada in 1896. News of this event didn’t reach the United States until 1897. This brought a stampede of prospectors from around the world in 1897-98. Among those who were excited by this event was Ezra E. Logue (b. 1874 at First Fork, Cameron County, Pennsylvania), a second-cousin to my great grand-father, George Alexander Logue. Ezra is reported to have made two trips to the Klondike in search of gold along with his cousin, Irivin Logue of Huntley, Cameron County. Enroute to the gold field he went over the Chilkoot Pass where several hours earlier an avalanche had occurred, burying many of prospectors. He helped dig out survivors (many had died) from the ice and snow, then proceeded on to the Klondike. (For a fascinating description of the events surrounding this gold-strike read James Michner’s book, Alaska).

At Crown Point Cemetery (overlooking Cascade Lake) Cascade ID

Following his second trip to the Klondike gold fields Ezra rafted and boated down the Yukon River in Alaska to a new gold-strike at Nome, Alaska. He then decided to return to Pennsylvania through the newly discovered gold mining area in central Idaho (Idaho County). He is reported to have taken up a timber and homestead claim near Garden Valley, Idaho (close to Long Valley, Idaho). His health not being good he returned to Cameron County, Pa. to spend the winter, with the intention of returning to Idaho in the spring. Unfortunately, he became seriously ill and died at home in Pennsylvania several months later of spinal meningitis and typhoid fever. He died on July 24,1903 and was buried in the Gilmore Cemetery, Cameron, Pa.

The liklihood that George Alexander Logue (my great-grandfather)and his sons had spent time talking to his second cousin, Ezra, is quite high, given the fact that they lived just a few miles from each other. Ezra Logue’s description of the merits of central Idaho apparently captivated the interest of George’s three sons (John, Thomas and Frederick).

The elder son, John Logue, came out to Idaho in 1902 to see for himself "...when he returned to to Pennsylvania he had a lot of glowing tales to tell about that big new country."

This apparently convinced his younger brother Thomas Elbridge Logue, another son of George Alexander, who also went to Idaho and in 1902 took out a stone and timber claim on the Middle Fork, above Garden Valley, Idaho, his first year in the West. In 1904 Thomas married Marie Winifred Dexter at Crawford, Idaho and in 1906 filed for a a homestead, east of Cascade on what is now part of the Tom Davis ranch. They lived there until 1937 when they retired to Cascade.

At about the same time Frederick (the third son) moved out to Thunder City, Valley County, and established a mercantile store to supply the miners of the booming Thunder Mountain gold-strike area.

Logue Mercantile, Crawford, Idaho

Then in 1904 the eldest brother, John Logue and his wife, along with their friends, the Ready family, decided to emmigrate to central Idaho to join Fred and Thomas. Stanton G. Ready (b. 1900) reports that in mid-April (1904) John and Jessie Logue along with the Ready family:

"...boarded a train in Austin, Pa. and headed west to Thunder City, Idaho...that train trip was a real ball for us 3 kids, but I guess it was a trial for our parents. It took five days from Austin, Pa. to Boise and, of course, that is where the rail trip ended. John bought a small team of mares and a light spring wagon, with the seats and we all loaded in one morning and headed for Thunder City with eleven all told and quite a wagon load. It took three days from Boise, via Spring Valley, up over Dry Buck and Tripod summits. Crossed the Payette river on a ferry at Smith’s Ferry. L.M. Garton was the ferry man, then over Round Valley hill, then to good old Thunder. Fred (Logue) was already in Thunder, running the store when we got there. This was a busy summer for the men folks, because there were homestead houses to be built before winter set in. The houses were all about 1/2 mile apart and each consisted of two rooms and an unfinished upstairs, we lived in them little houses for quite a spell, until the homesteads were proved up and patents obtained to the land. After that it was legally yours."

Meanwhile, back in Pennsylvania, Bessie Logue (younger half-sister to the three Logue brothers) had married Clayton Williams in 1899 (Bessie was 15 years old) and they had one child, Beatrice. Unfortunately, Clayton died in Feb 1900, before the birth of their daughter. One month later Bessie’s mother, Aurilla Ervay Logue, died. Imagine the plight of this fifteen year old girl--loosing both a husband and her mother in the same year, and with an infant daughter to raise.

Under these circumstances, Bessie left her little girl (Beatrice) in the care of friends in the area. Three years later (1903) Bessie remarried, to Ernest William Harwood in Delevan, New York. Then she returned to Pennsylvania to reclaim Beatrice. Apparently, the foster parents did not want to give her up. Bessie persevered and was able to get the child away from the foster parents.

Between 1904 and 1909 Bessie had three more children by Ernest Harwood. Louise Erma (my mother), Stanley (Ted), and George. Shortly after the birth of George (1909) they decided to emmigrate west and join Bessie’s three older Logue brothers in Valley County, Idaho. At about the same time Bessie’s father (a widower for the second time-- his second wife Aurilla having died in 1900) made the same choice. He lived with Bessie and Ernest Harwood in a small homestead house about one mile north of Thunder City and six miles east of what later became the town of Cascade.

In 1917 the railroad was built into Valley County from Emmett. It passed to the west of Thunder City. This resulted in the emergence of Cascade as a town and spelled the end of Thunder City. The Logues moved the building in which their store was located from Thunder City over to Cascade, where it occupied a corner lot on main street and later became known as the "Merit Store" which I remember frequenting when I was a boy, living in Cascade in the 1930’s.

The Logues played a prominent role in the development of Cascade. In addition to the mercantile store, Clayton Gerald (Jerry) Logue (b.1902), son of John Sweet Logue, was the Sheriff of Valley County. His first cousin, Merton Alexander Logue (son of Frederick Logue) later (1950) also became the Sheriff for Valley County and served in that capacity for twenty-two years.

Merton Logue, Valley Co Sheriff for 22 1/2 years

 Frederick Logue eventually left Valley County, to live in Snohomish, Washington,. There he put in a store by a big truck garden that ran for miles. Uncle Fred was a very religious man and would not sell tobacco or beer. Needless to say, someone came along who did not have these values and ran him out of business. Fred eventually died at Monroe, Washington in 1950.

Children of the Logues have scattered throughout the Northwest. Today (1999) the only Logue family living in Valley County is Ruth, the wife of Fred Logue (2010) Ruth still living, but in Boise now. [2011, Ruth Bush Logue now lives in Boise - no Logues live in Valley County at this time.]