Page:The part taken by women in American history.djvu/25

4 at that school in 1855. I came home and soon after met my husband, General John A. Logan, who had served during the War with Mexico with my father, and to whom I am said to have been given by father when I was a child. We were married on the twenty-seventh day of November, 1855. My husband was at that time a promising young lawyer, and we removed to Benton, Franklin County, Illinois, when he was appointed prosecuting attorney for the third judicial district of the State of Illinois, which embraced sixteen counties. In those days we were not furnished with official blanks for everything, as is the case to-day, and I began to assist my husband in writing indictments for minor offenses, and in that way gradually drifted into taking part in everything he did. We had the same struggle that all young people without money had in those early days, but the fact that in 1858 my husband was elected to Congress shows that we were not altogether unsuccessful."

What lies between those modest lines is the fact that the young wife immediately on marriage installed herself in the place of companion and helpmeet to her ambitious husband, not only in the housewifely sense, but as secretary and assistant in his office work, and in this work she acquired that marvelous facility for handling large numbers of letters, briefs, etc., which enabled her years later to cope with the enormous correspondence of General Logan while he was representing his country in Congress, and at that critical time when the national crisis made secrecy in regard to the affairs of her public servants an imperative necessity. While, as for the "success" of the political career which it was Logan's ambition to achieve even in these incipient stages, as ever after, Mrs. Logan's personality was an asset too large to be accurately estimated. The superb strength of the young woman and her loyal resourcefulness were nowhere better illustrated