Cornelius Ambrose Logan (August 24, 1832 – January 30, 1899) was an American physician, writer, and diplomat, best known for his two terms as
United States Ambassador to Chile
The following is a list of ambassadors that the United States has sent to Chile. The current title given by the United States State Department to this position is Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary.
See also
*Ambassadors of ...
(1873-6 and 1882-5) during difficult times.
Logan spent his early life in
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
,
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
. In 1849 he began to study medicine with Dr. John T. Shotwell; in 1850 he began instruction under
Dr. R. D. Mussey, then serving as president of the
American Medical Association
The American Medical Association (AMA) is a professional association and lobbying group of physicians and medical students. Founded in 1847, it is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Membership was approximately 240,000 in 2016.
The AMA's state ...
. He graduated from Miami Medical College (now part of the
University of Cincinnati
The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati) is a public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1819 as Cincinnati College, it is the oldest institution of higher education in Cincinnati and has an annual enrollment of over 44,00 ...
) in 1853. In 1856 he moved to
Kansas
Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...
to practice medicine and was appointed chairman of the State Board of Medical Examiners at the outbreak of the Civil War. He was elected to the first city council of the new city of
Atchison Atchison may refer to:
Places
In the United States:
*Atchison, California, a former settlement
*Atchison, Kansas, a city
*Atchison County, Kansas
*Atchison County, Missouri
People with the surname
* Bob Atchison (born 1941), Canadian drag race ...
in 1858.
After the Civil War Logan published works on a variety of subjects - sanitary conditions, climatology, and infectious disease. He edited a posthumous work on volunteer soldiers by his cousin,
General John A. Logan
John Alexander Logan (February 9, 1826 – December 26, 1886) was an American soldier and politician. He served in the Mexican–American War and was a general in the Union Army in the American Civil War. He served the state of Illinois as a st ...
. He co-founded and edited a medical journal in
Leavenworth, the first medical journal in Kansas. He was also part of a company trying to mine coal in northern Kansas, and he and his brother Thomas successfully lobbied Congress for a franchise to mine on government land.
Logan served as ambassador to Chile (1873–6), ambassador to Central America (1879–82), and for a second time as ambassador to Chile (1882–5). He attempted to mediate an end to the
War of the Pacific
The War of the Pacific ( es, link=no, Guerra del Pacífico), also known as the Saltpeter War ( es, link=no, Guerra del salitre) and by multiple other names, was a war between Chile and a Bolivian–Peruvian alliance from 1879 to 1884. Fought ...
, but was unsuccessful. He resigned his post in 1885 due to illness and returned to the United States. After studying in Europe, he resumed medical practice in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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. In 1890 he went to Europe as a commissioner of the 1893 Chicago
World's Columbian Exposition
The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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. He died of
Bright's disease
Bright's disease is a historical classification of kidney diseases that are described in modern medicine as acute or chronic nephritis. It was characterized by swelling and the presence of albumin in the urine, and was frequently accompanied b ...
in Los Angeles in 1899.
Logan was a member of the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows
The Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) is a non-political and non-sectarian international fraternal order of Odd Fellowship. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Wildey in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Evolving from the Order of Odd ...
; he organized the first grand lodge of Odd Fellows in Kansas and served as Grand Sire of the national organization 1872–4. While in Chile he organized the first lodge and Grand Lodge there, in
Valparaiso.
Logan married Zoe Shaw in 1854; they had two children. His daughter Celia (1855–1946) married Charles H. Waterous Jr. (1861–1925), son of Canadian manufacturer
Charles Horatio Waterous; the couple had met in Chile.
Family
Logan came from a distinguished family, most of them actors and writers. His father,
Cornelius Ambrosius Logan
Cornelius Ambrosius Logan (May 4, 1806 – February 23, 1853) was an American actor, playwright, and journalist who was father to a famous family of actresses and writers.
Biography
Born in Baltimore to Irish immigrant parents, Logan was educ ...
(1806–1853), was a successful actor who wrote a number of plays showcasing the typical "
Yankee
The term ''Yankee'' and its contracted form ''Yank'' have several interrelated meanings, all referring to people from the United States. Its various senses depend on the context, and may refer to New Englanders, residents of the Northern United St ...
" characters he played. His sister
Olive Logan
Olive Logan (April 22, 1839 – April 27, 1909) was an American actress and author, daughter of Irish-American actor and playwright Cornelius Ambrosius Logan and Eliza Akeley.
Career
She was born in Elmira, New York, and attended Wesleyan Fema ...
(1839–1909) was an actress, lecturer, and writer; another sister,
Eliza
ELIZA is an early natural language processing computer program created from 1964 to 1966 at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory by Joseph Weizenbaum. Created to demonstrate the superficiality of communication between humans and machines, E ...
(1827–1872), had a successful stage career before marrying theatrical manager George Wood in 1859.
Celia (1837–1904) was an actress but also a journalist, novelist and translator; she was for a time the wife of painter
Miner Kilbourne Kellogg (1814–1889). Logan's brother Thomas Ackley Logan (1829–1906) was a prominent Ohio lawyer. Another sister, Kate Logan (died 1872), was adopted by General John A. Logan, a distant cousin, but remained close to her birth family.
[''Reminiscences of a Soldier's Wife'', Mrs. John A. Logan, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1913, p. 303]
Works
*''Reports on the Sanitary Relations of the State of Kansas'' (1866)
*''On the Climatology of the Missouri Valley'' (1878)
*''Physics of the Infectious Diseases'' (1878)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Logan, Cornelius Ambrose
Physicians from Kansas
Medical journal editors
Ambassadors of the United States to Chile
Ambassadors of the United States to Guatemala
Ambassadors of the United States to Costa Rica
Ambassadors of the United States to El Salvador
Ambassadors of the United States to Honduras
Ambassadors of the United States to Nicaragua
World's Columbian Exposition
People from Franklin County, Massachusetts
1832 births
1899 deaths
19th-century American diplomats
Deaths from nephritis