MARTHA DANIEL LOGAN
HORTICULTURIST
1702-1779

 "In 1753 the South Carolina Gaxette carried Martha Logan's advertisement:'A
parcel of very good seed, flower roots, and fruit stones to be sold on the
Green near Trott's Point.'

Martha's early education, like that of most young women of her day, included
reading, writing, and needle work.  But Martha enjoyed working with flowers
and plants, for her father was in the nursery business.  Robert Daniel, one
of the last of the proprietary governors, died when his daughter was
thirteen years old.  Perhaps Martha inherited his business, as she did land
along the Wando River.

Shortly afterher father's death, Martha married George Logan, Jr..  The
couple had eight children.  During this period Martha advertised in the
Gazette that she would board students and tutor them at their Wando River
home.  Somewhat later she worked in a boarding school in Charleston.

Still, Martha's chief interest lay in gardening.  She had known a Mrs.
Lamboll, one of the first to have a garden in Charleston, and may have
studied with her.  At any rate, gardening rapidly became a fashionable hobby
of the time, and wealthy ladies and gentlemen where very interested in
planting their grounds with rare plants and shrubsd.  As a result of her
interest, Martha printed a "GARDENER'S KALENDAR," and wrote a treatise on
gardening that was published in 1752 in John Tobler's, SOUTH CAROLINA ALMANACK.

In her nursery business, Martha took advantage of the ships that sailed from
Charleston to Philadelphia.  The good-natured captains would carry llarge
tubs planted with roots and cuttings of all kinds.

John Bartram, a noted biologist with whom Martha exchanged seeds, wrote to a
London correspondant:  "Mrs. Logan's garden is her delight."  Along with
their correspondence a "little silk bagg," crammed with seeds, went back and
forth between Charleston, Philadelphia, and London.

Once Martha wrote Bartram: "I have lost my tulips and hyacinths, I had in a
closet to dry and the mice ate them."

South Carolinians also enjoyed Martha's nursery business.  One woman wrote
in her diary in 1763 of having been to Mrs. Logan's to buy roots.

Whether or not her nursery was profitable, Martha Logan's life was a
rewarding one.  She had family, friends, and flowers.  It was because of her
flowers that she has gained a place in the history of American gardening.

Mrs. Logan died in Charleston on June 28, 1779, and was buried in the family
vault, since destroyed, in Saint Philip's churchyard.

**Note**  This is the entire write-up that was in : SOUTH CAROLINA WOMEN by
Idella Bodie.  I hope this is what you were looking for.  Anne P.