Stone Gardens: Trek down a lonely Logan County dirt road ends at the roots of an important family tree

Along a quiet dirt road off Highway 217, south of Sugar Creek in Logan County, lies a small family cemetery on the Old Logan Plantation, a hidden testament to Arkansas’s frontier past.

Here rests Colonel David Logan , the early settler whose legacy quietly shaped the region, giving his name to the county that honors his family’s contributions. Born in 1766 near Stanford, Kentucky, David Logan was a farmer and family man with a pioneering spirit.

Around 1790, he married Nancy Thurmond, raising a large family, including their son James, who would later rise to prominence in Arkansas’s territorial politics. By the early 1830s, as Arkansas opened to settlers following the Indian Removal Act, David, then in his mid-60s, left Kentucky’s rolling hills for the promise of new land.

After a brief stay in Wayne County, Missouri, he led his family--wife, children, and enslaved laborers—to the Arkansas River’s banks west of Spadra in what was then Pope County.

The journey was grueling, marked by treacherous trails, swollen rivers, and threats of malaria and conflict with displaced Native Americans.

Among those David brought was Beaunavista Gibson, an enslaved woman whose unmarked grave in the family cemetery reflects the harsh realities of the plantation system. Some field stones, now gone, reportedly marked the graves of enslaved individuals, possibly including Native Americans, hinting at the complex human toll of settlement.

The Logans faced immediate hardship in Arkansas. A cholera epidemic in 1839 decimated their enslaved workforce, prompting a move south to a 1,000-acre tract on Sugar Creek, near present-day Booneville. There, David cleared dense forests for cotton and corn,

building a self-sufficient plantation that anchored the scattered community.

Though not a public figure like his son, David’s steady presence brought stability to a lawless frontier as Arkansas transitioned to statehood in 1836.

David died in 1835 at age 69, likely worn down by the rigors of frontier life, and was buried in the family cemetery beneath a large tombstone. His son James, a militia colonel and territorial legislator, was laid to rest in 1859 in a prominent mausoleum nearby, his contributions cementing the Logan name when the county was formed in 1875.

James established Logan’s Mill and Post Office, fostering local growth. Today, the Logan Cemetery, reachable by a rugged quarter-mile path, sees few visitors--mostly descendants or historians tracing Arkansas’s pre-Civil War roots.

Its isolation mirrors the Logans’ quiet endurance.

As the county marks its 150th year, there’s growing interest in preserving such sites to honor both the pioneers and the overlooked lives tied to their legacy. David Logan’s story--of taming a wilderness, raising a family that shaped a state, and leaving a name etched in Arkansas soil--endures on this humble plot.