None is more worthy of determinate representation in the pages of this work, as an example of that sterling character which the Emerald Isle has contributed to the complex fabric of our national commonwealth than Capt. William Logan, whose loyalty to the land of his adoption was signally shown in the valiant service that he accorded as one of her soldiers – a service which ended only when he met the grim messenger of death on the battlefield of Big Hole, Mont., on August 9, 1877. It is with marked satisfaction that we here give tribute to his memory. He was born in County Louth, Ireland, December 9, 1830, of Scotch-Irish parentage, being the son of Thomas D. and Margaret (Rohan) Logan, who passed their entire lives in Ireland. Of their family of three sons and five daughters, Capt. Logan was the only one to emigrate to the United States. His father was a clergyman of the Church of England, a man of high intellectual attainments and force of character. Of the sons it is worthy of record that Charles was colonel of the Sixty-first Highlanders, that Archibald was a captain in the British navy, Thomas is now a resident of Scotland, while Capt. Logan, the other son, has acquired national fame by his gallantry.

Willliam Logan completed his educational discipline in famous old Trinity College, where he graduated about 1847, coming to the United States in 1848. He located in New Orleans, where he first found work at railroading, continuing to advance until he became assistant engineer. He resigned this office and enlisted in Company I, Seventh United States Infantry, as a private, the regiment having been recruited in New Orleans for service in the Mexican war. Capt. Logan served under Gen. Taylor on the Rio Grande, and later under Gen. Scott, with whom he served until the fall of the city of Mexico, participating in all engagements in which his command took part. He continued with his regiment as first sergeant after the war, this having been assigned to the work of guarding the frontier in Texas and New Mexico, and to opposing the depredations of the Indians. The regiment finally surrendered to Gen. Kirby Smith, in 1861, at the commencement of the Civil war. Captain Logan was paroled and sent to Rouse’s Point, N. Y., where he remained until the regiment was exchanged the succeeding fall. He again entered the service in the spring of 1862 with the Army of the Potomac, and was with his regiment until the battle of Fredericksburg, where he was severely wounded in the shoulder and was conveyed to the hospital at David’s Island, in New York harbor, where he served as hospital steward after he had sufficiently recuperated. Prior to receiving this wound Capt. Logan had participated in the battles of Chancellorsville and Snecker’s Gap. Having rejoined his regiment, he was commissioned first lieutenant thereof in 1864, and, after the surrender of Lee, he went to St. Augustine, Fla., where he served as quartermaster-general until 1869, when he accompanied his regiment to Fort Steele, Wyo., where it was engaged in construction work and in guarding the Union Pacific Railroad, then in construction. Capt. Logan moved on to Fort Beaufort, N. D., in 1870, remaining at that station until 1872, which was the year of his advent in Montana, and here he was one of the number to take part in the Yellowstone expedition. Being still in the military department of the United States service, Capt. Logan was called upon to show his mettle in conflict with the Indians, taking part in “Baker’s fight” near Billings, and he was officer of the guard on the night when the attack was made by the hostile Sioux, and for his effective service on this occasion he received honorable mention. From 1872 to 1876 he was stationed at Fort Shaw, doing recruiting service at Dubuque, Iowa, during the first two years of this time, and in 1875 he was commissioned captain. In the centennial year he rejoined his regiment, was with Gen. Gibbon in the Sioux campaign, and was on the ground where Custer was killed the day after this memorable disaster. Returning to Fort Shaw, in the spring of 1877, he was removed to Fort Missoula, then in course of construction, where he remained until he was called to accompany Gen. Gibbon on the expedition which culminated in the battle of the Big Hole, where he met his death at the hands of a vengeful [woman]. His death ended a career of signal honor and valiant service of bravery and gallantry noted by his superior officers and was on the high road to further promotion. His loss was a distinct loss to the United State army, and it was deeply mourned not only by his companions in arms, but also by a very wide circle of devoted friends. His remains now repose in the national cemetery on the Custer battlefield, having been removed to that sepulcher in 1882.

In 1854, in Texas, Capt. Logan was united in marriage with Miss Odelia Furlong, a native of the famous old city of Strasburg, Alsace-Lorraine, Germany, whence she came with her parents to the United States, the family settling in Texas. To Capt. and Mrs. Logan were born thirteen children; four sons and three daughters are now living; William R., a resident of Helena; Francis, wife of Brig.-Gen. Comba, of the Fifth United States Infantry, at Fort Sheridan, Ill.; Thomas A., late of the First Washington Infantry, and who was in active service in Manila; Maggie, wife of Maj. J. R. Van Arsdale, now at Fort Davis, near Nome, Alaska, with the Seventh United States Infantry; Sidney M., a prominent attorney of Kalispell; Katharine, the wife of J. W. Luke, of Helena; and Archie, who served as second lieutenant in the First Montana Regiment in the Philippines, and now stationed at Fort Davis, Alaska.

A sketch of the life of Capt. Logan would not be complete without at least a passing reference to a romantic incident following his death at Big Hole. As stated in the foregoing biography, Capt. Logan was descended from a Scottish family on of his ancestors being the Bruce. Those familiar with the history of Scotland will recall the ambition of the Bruce to visit the Holy Lands, his death with that ambition yet unrealized, his request of the Douglas that, since fate had debarred him from the realization of his most cherished ambition, the latter carry his heart to the scene of the crucifixion; how the Douglas, complying with the dying request of his chief, placed his heart in a silver casket and how subsequently, in a battle with the Saracens, he cast the casket into the thick of the fight crying “Go first, brave heart, in battle, as thou were wont to do, and Douglas will follow thee”; how the heart and casket were subsequently recovered, pierced with a barbarian spear, and how the “bleeding heart” has ever since been a part and parcel of Scottish history and tradition. In that battle were two brothers of the name Logan (originally Lagan, a low place), Walter and Robert. One of them was killed in the battle and the other subsequently married a daughter of Robert Bruce and granddaughter of the Bruce. From that time the Logan crest has been a heart pierced by a passion nail surrounded by a belt bearing the inscription “In hoc majorum virtus.” When William Logan started on his journey to America his father gave him a seal ring which had been in the family for many generations. The seal was the family crest engraven and enamelled on a violet-colored stone. During Logan’s residence in Florida he became worshipful master of his Masonic lodge and when he moved north he was presented by his Masonic friends with a plain band ring covered with Masonic emblems in enamel. Both rings were on the little finger of his left hand until after his death. Capt. Logan was killed very early in the Big Hole engagement, and shortly after his death the troops were driven back from the main battlefield to a timbered point, the bodies of the slain thus being left in the possession of the Indians. Capt. Logan’s body was stripped of its uniform, his scalp taken off and the finger bearing his two rings removed by the Indians. His widow vainly endeavored for years to recover these rings, advertising in the Army and Navy Journal and in the territorial newspapers. About three years after the fight a Nez Perce Indian was killed near the international boundary line by an Indian of another tribe and the seal ring was found on his body. It passed from hand to hand until it finally came to the notice of “Billy” Todd, in Fort Benton, who recognized it as one formerly worn by his old friend, Capt. Logan. He redeemed it from the old trapper who had it and sent it to the commanding officer at Cantonment Bad Lands on the Missouri river. An officer was sent to deliver the ring to Mrs. Logan at Helena and since then the ring has been worn by William R. Logan, oldest son of the Captain.

For years no trace was had of the Masonic ring and all hope of recovering it was given up by the family. In 1900, however, nearly twenty-three years after the fight, while William R. Logan was residing at the Blackfoot agency, a Piegan [woman] entered his office to lay before the agent one of the many grievances with which the Indians are afflicted. On one of her fingers she wore a band ring much worn, but still showing faintly the outlines of many Masonic emblems. Mr. Logan immediately recognized the ring as his father’s and easily succeeded in purchasing it from the old [woman], who gave this brief account of her connection with it:

A few months after the battle of the Big Hole a hunting party of Blackfeet and Piegans encountered a party of Nez Perces near the Cypress Hills in northern Montana and a brisk fight ensued in which a number of Indians were killed on both sides. Among the fallen Nez Perces was a buck who wore this ring. The finger was removed, precisely as the corresponding finger was removed from the lawful owner of the ring twenty-three years before, and was worn by the victorious Piegan until his death, when it came into the possession of the [woman] who sold it to Capt. Logan’s son. So after a separation of twenty-three years the rings again repose side by side.