Loganberry

   The loganberry is shaped like a blackberry, has the color of a raspberry, and is thought to have the flavor of both. However, its sharp taste is not to everyone's liking. The man who raised this berry was James Harvey Logan (1841-1928), a lawyer and an amateur horticulturist. Born in Indiana, Logan migrated to Missouri and became a schoolteacher. To change the direction of his life, Logan took on a job of driving an ox team for the Overland Telegraph Company. Arriving at the West Coast, Logan changed direction again by studying law. He settled in Santa Cruz, California, passed the bar examinations, and was elected a district attorney. He then was elected to the Superior Court, which he served from 1880 to 1892, when he retired.

   Logan was through with law but not with life. His abiding interest was in horticulture. To this end, he began to experiment with fruit and vegetables. The berry that bears his name had its birth in 1881 (he was still a judge) when he planted a row of wild California blackberries between a row of Texas early blackberries. After he planted the second generation seedlings, he discovered the product was two distinct fruits— one, a blackberry having a different taste, and two, a berry that resembled a raspberry but with a delightful flavor of its own and quite distinctive from the others. And so Logan became the berry's father, but he never fully disclosed his horticultural methods.