Logan, Greenbury
(born: 1798 - died: 1868)Greenbury (or Greenberry) Logan was born in Kentucky, the son of David Logan, who was white. Greenbury may or may not have been enslaved, though he was free when he left Kentucky for Missouri, where he married and fathered five children.
In 1831, Logan moved to Texas and became a blacksmith on the Bingham Plantation; he was one of the first African Americans to settle in Texas. He purchased the freedom of an enslaved woman name Caroline and married her.
Logan fought at Velasco, TX and later joined the Texas army and fought at Bexar, TX, where he was wounded in the right shoulder and lost the use of that arm. No longer able to be a blacksmith, Logan and his wife opened a successful boarding house in Brazoria, TX.
The Texas Constitution of 1836 stipulated that all freemen were to leave the Republic of Texas; Logan, like Nelson Kavanaugh, filed a petition with Congress, asking that he be allowed to remain in Texas. Whether the Texas Congress replied or not the Logans remained in Texas, but their financial success began to decline in 1839. By 1845 they had lost all of their property.
For more see Greenbury Logan, by N. Thompson, at The Handbook of Texas Online website; several articles in the Southwestern Historical Quarterly, including H. Schoen, "The Free Negro in the Republic of Texas," vol. 41, issue 1, pp. 83-108; and In Search of the Racial Frontier: African Americans in the American West, by Q. Taylor.