When they were separated by families dispersing as a result of the British occupation of Philadelphia of 1777–78, Wister began keeping a diary in the form of unsent letters to "Debby" Norris.

Just 14 at the time, she took note of the fact that the crowd was a small one and that (in the sardonic phrasing of her mature self): "those among them who joined in the acclamation were not the most sober or reflecting.

Two years later they moved into Stenton, a mansion built in the Germantown area of Philadelphia by James Logan that is now open to the public.

Robert Walsh, editor of the National Gazette, admired in Logan "a strength of intellect, a copiousness of knowledge, an habitual dignity of thought and manner, and a natural justness and refinement.

[9] Starting in 1815 and continuing to just before her death, Logan began keeping a diary in which she intended to record "whatever I shall hear of fact or anecdote that shall appear worthy of preservation.

[4] Her style is fairly plain, without much in the way of rhetorical flourishes, and occasionally wry, as when she mentions that she once imagined living on an island "with all of God's creatures (rats and injurious ones excepted)".

Her unmarried son Algernon, who lived with her, died unexpectedly in 1835, and many journal entries from around that period are about her grief at his illness and loss.

Logan maintained an extensive correspondence, mainly with her sons Albanus and Algernon, but also with friends and fellow writers such as Hannah Griffitts.