The Logan family’s legacy spans five generations in Denton

The couple’s son Arthur Logan served in the Army in France during World War I. Although it was rare for Black people to own land, Arthur lived on land he owned in Denton’s Orchard Hill, which eventually became the Texas Woman’s University golf course.

Racial tensions increased after World War I, especially among prominent white Denton residents who feared the war trained Black people to use guns. Arthur moved to San Bernardino, California, after the Ku Klux Klan threatened his family.

At the time, Denton city officials used a bond election to banish Quakertown’s residents from the center of town to a muddy cow pasture next to an open sewer in east Denton. Many Quakertown residents moved to other states, including John Logan, who followed his son to San Bernardino. Laura died at age 53, three years after Quakertown’s removal.

Some of the Logan children stayed in Denton, including Loyd Logan, who married Litha Mae Taylor in 1920. The couple moved to the new Quaker neighborhood next to Denton’s Oakwood Cemetery after the community’s forcible removal. They had eight children: Leonard, Lloyd Jr., W.L., James Holford, Johnnie, Laura Mae, and twins Luzine and Lodine.

Loyd worked at North American Aviation in Dallas, W.B. McClurken Store, Russells Department Store and at North Texas State University’s Oak Street Hall until his 1950 death at age 55. Loyd’s obituary called him a “well-known Negro.” After a service at St. James AME Church, Loyd Logan was buried in Denton’s Oakwood Cemetery.

W.L. Logan opened the Logan shoe shop, which still operates on Hickory Street near the Campus Theatre. Leonard Logan worked in the mailroom of the bank across from the shoe shop.

Lloyd Dean Logan Jr. lived on Prairie Street. He married Jewel Mae Haynes in 1942. Lloyd Dean had a son from a previous marriage, but the couple had four children: Juanita Dean, twins Reginald Thomas and Ronald Timothy and Kennath Darrel.

Lloyd worked as a porter and ticket agent at the Continental Trailways bus station, which was at the site of present-day Trophy House at 201 S. Elm St. Lloyd worked as a chef for 21 years at UNT’s Marquis Hall Christal Room, a popular Sunday lunch spot. He also worked at Denton’s original Ju-cy Pig restaurant.

Lloyd’s side job was carrying newspapers for the Dallas Times Herald, Fort Worth Press and the Denton Record-Chronicle. Lloyd Dean died in 1997; Jewel died in 2014.

Reginald Logan was born in 1948 in the Denton Hospital and Clinic, which still stands on Locust Street; hospital births were rare in 1948.

Reginald was a Fred Moore High School Dragons football standout for coach C.H. Collins. He remembers Collins as a “supercoach, and a big disciplinarian who was fair but stern.” When Denton schools finally desegregated, Collins moved with his players to create a coaching dream team that took Denton High School to state.

After Quakertown’s forcible removal from downtown Denton in 1923, Black residents who didn’t leave Texas established a Southeast Denton enclave centered around churches, small stores and community centers. Although Reginald’s father and grandfather didn’t talk about Quakertown, his uncle did. Today, Reginald is grateful that his relatives helped establish a safe place for people of color. He remembers the Denton Women’s Interracial Fellowship as a “key factor in providing the bridge to get us over the racial problems.”

Reginald joined the Air Force with his twin brother. After basic training in Amarillo, he was stationed in San Bernardino. Reginald Logan was promoted to sergeant as the crew chief for the Lockheed C-141 Starlifter during his four years in the Air Force.

He met his wife-to-be, Bonnie R. Curtis, in San Bernardino. They married on Valentine’s Day in 1970. He worked in California for GTE, Lockheed and the National Semiconductor Assembly, finally returning to Denton as a GTE branch manager in 1984. The couple moved to a house he inherited on Prairie Street, then to Southeast Denton’s Lincoln Park. In 1990, Reginald felt called to enter the ministry. He is also currently the treasurer of the Denton Black Film Festival.

A member of the Logan family has served in every war since World War I. The Logan family has been a pillar of the Denton community for five generations.