LOGSDON DITCH UPDATE

Updated information on the LOGSDON DITCH in Vanderburgh County, Indiana:

We sent inquiries off requesting any information about how this ditch came about and if it was named after a paritcular individual in the Logsdon bunch. This is what our reply was:

This information was recieved from a gentleman at a Willard Historical Library in Indiana.

My most educated guess to your question is as follows. In the late 1800s Hiram M Logsdon bought a large amount of property in Union Township. (Logsdon was a prominent attorney, Democratic politician and probate judge) Southeast of his property the Stroud family also had substantial land holdings. At his time a series of ditches were being constructed to drain the many sloughs and low area in Union Township for cultivation. It was customary to name ditches for the property owners or the people who constructed them. In the County Commissioner's records there are contracts for bridges in 1896 on King's Road over Logsdon Stroud Ditch and in 1888-9 on Seminary Road over Logsdon Stroud Ditch (Frenchmann's Slough) . On some maps the northern branch of the ditch was listed just as Stroud Ditch. An earlier 1869 bridge was listed as crossing Frenchman's Slough. All of the above information leads me to believe that Frenchman's Slough was renamed Logsdon Ditch in the late 1800s after H.M. Logsdon bought the property in the area.