Cornelius Ambrosius Logan

Cornelius Ambrosius Logan (born Baltimore, Maryland, May 4, 1806; died on the Ohio River near Wheeling, then in the state of Virginia, February 22, 1853) was an American actor, playwright, and journalist who was father to a famous family of actresses and writers.

Born in America to Irish immigrant parents,^[1] Logan was educated for the Catholic priesthood at St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore, but then entered a shipping house, where his work led him to travel to Europe several times. He next became a journalist, and after working as a drama critic began to write plays and act himself. He moved to Cincinnati with his growing family in 1840 where he operated the "National Theater". He later operated theaters in other cities and traveled with his oldest daughter Eliza, playing comic "yankee" roles. He also wrote short stories, poetry, notably a well-regarded Ode to the Mississippi, and a defence of the theater against criticism from the pulpit.^[2]

Family

Logan was married in 1825 to Eliza Acheley, and their children were: Eliza (1827–1872), a successful actress; Thomas (1829–1906), a prominent Cincinnati lawyer;^[3] Cornelius Ambrose (1832–1899), a physician, writer, and diplomat; Celia (1837–1904), an actress, journalist, translator, and novelist; Olive (1839–1909), an actress and writer and lecturer on the theater; and younger sisters Alice, Grace, and Kate, all of whom appeared on the stage for a time. Kate (1847-1872) was adopted by politician and Civil War hero John A. Logan, a distant cousin, probably in 1866.^[4]

Alice (1844-1917) suffered a mental breakdown on the day of her marriage to actor and writer Albert W. Aiken in 1871; she died many years later in a Norristown, Pennsylvania insane asylum.^[5][6] Olive also died in an asylum, in England, although she only became incapacitated in the last years of her life.^[7]

Theatrical works

• Yankee Land, or The Foundling of the Apple Orchard (1834) (popularly performed in by Dan Marble)^[8]
• The Wag of Maine (1835)
• The Vermont Wool Dealer (1840?) (also performed in by Marble)^[8]
• Removing the Deposits
• Astarte
• The Celestial Empire; Or, The Yankee in China (1846)
• Chloroform, or New York a Hundred Years Hence (1849)

References

1. The Mimic World, Olive Logan, New World Publishing, Philadelphia, 1871, pp. 15–6
2. The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, eds. Rossiter Johnson and John Howard Brown, Volume VII, Boston, 1904, The Biographical Society, entry "Cornelius Ambrosius Logan"
3. Ohio Law Reporter, Volume 4, 1907, obituary, p. 578
4. Reminiscences of a Soldier's Wife, Mrs. John A. Logan, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1913, p. 211
5. South-eastern Independent, November 17, 1871, "Insanity of an Actress", p. 4
6. PDF of original grave reference for Alice's grave
7. New York Times, May 1, 1909, "Olive Logan Left Effects to Friends"
8. (July 1879). The American on the Stage, Scribner's Monthly, pp. 324-35.