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- Maury County, TN Court Minutes, Bk. 9, page 67, July 18, 1825. William Owen(s) - 9 years old the 20th December last, ordered to be bound to Francis Slauter until he is 21 to be a gunsmith.
1840 MO Census, Washington Co. p. 212, line 17. William Owens2 males under 5 yrs. old; 1 male between 5 - 10 yrs. old; 1 male 20 - 30 yrs. old; 1 female 5 - 10 yrs. old.
1850 MO Census, Washington Co., Liberty Twp. p. 142B, lines 20-27, October 11, 1850. William Owens, 36, b. TN, farmer. Sarah A., 25, TN; Elias, 16, MO; Reuben, 13, MO; Anna I, 6, MO; Wm. B., 4, MO; Daniel M., 3, MO; and Mary A., 4/12, MO.
1860 MO Census, Stone County. Flat Creek Twp p. 568-569, July 3, 1860. William Owen, 45, TN, Farmer; Sarah, 35, TN; Ann, 16, MO; William, 14, MO; Daniel, 12, MO; Mary A., 10, MO; James, 8, MO; Hugh, 6, MO; John A., 4, MO; Mahala, 1, MO. Wm. Sr. could not read or write: the family is mistakenly listed as "Owen" instead of "Owens".
1870 MO Census, Stone Co., Flat Creek Twp. p. 122A, lines 1-9. William Owens, 55, TN, Farmer; Sarah, 44, GA, Keeping House; Mary A., 21, MO, at home; James C., 18, MO, Farm Laborer; Hugh J., 16, MO, Farm Laborer; John A., 14, MO, at home; Mahala A., 11, MO, at home; Drucilla, 8, MO, at home; Robert H. , 5, MO, at home. Wm. owned personal property valued at $340. Hugh and John could not write. Mahala could not read or write. Rollen is mistakenly listed as Robert.
1880 MO Census, Stone Co., Williams Twp p. 38B, lines 28-32, June 4, 1880. William Owens, 65, TN, Farmer; Sarah Ann, 54, TN/NC, keeping house; Hugh Jay, 26, MO, at home; Rolin H., 15, MO, at home; Dilafatt(?), 9, MO, at home. Hugh had already been married and widowed; four other Owens families follow, probably sons of Wm. because they all list both parents born in TN.
William King Owens owned land in Sections 11 and 15. By 1860 their one room cabin buldged with 2 teenagers and 6 children. As the children married, they farmed adjacent to, or near their parents.
Owens Cemetery, Section 11; Owens School, Section 15; Fields School and Cemetery, Section 18; Jones School, Section 24; Hendrickson School, Section 28.
Info. in last 2 paragraphs from History of Stone County Missouri, p. 555 written by Leonard E. Carey
This is a rather large family, and I have the names and information on some 487 descendants as of this writing.
Leonard E. Carey 1989
The Owenses were basically farmers and they became a part of the American Dream. Wherever new land was opened for homesteading, you will find them packing up their belongings and moving on to what they hoped would be a better life. Some found their "Utopia," but others could only see the hardships.
From family statements, it is learned that William and his son Elias travelled from Tennessee into eastern Missouri looking for land that they could settled on. They found what they were looking for in Washington Co., MO, and sent word back to Tennessee that the rest of the family should follow them by wagon team.
A house was built; crops set in and there was time for increasing the family. It was here that Ann, William B., Daniel, and Mary Dosha were born. This was to be their home for the nexxt 10 years or so. The children attended school in a one-room school house that stands today. It is located at Sunnan Lake, Washington Co., MO. I was fortunate in taking a picture of this building, though it is no longer used as a school
Samuel J. Lamkey, a relative of the family, now lives on the old home place. The original house burned, as have three others that were built, so there is little remaining to indicate how it was when William lived there. We can, however, pinpoint the location as being near Ebo, MO.
Sometime between the 1850 census and 1852 William moved his family to Newton Co., MO. His son, James Clement Owens, was born at Granby, MO 18 June 1852. Elizabeth and Elias were already married by thistime, and they remained in Washington Co., as did Reuben. I am not sure what happened to Elizabeth, but I have met many of her brother's descendants in Washington Co., MO.
Hugh Jefferson Owens was born 15 June 1854, probably at Granby, MO. John Anderson Owens was born 14 April 1856 at Granby, MO, Sometime between 1856 and 1859, William moved his family to Stone Co., MO, His daughter Mahala America Josephine
Owens was born in Stone Co., 31 March 1859. It was in Stone Co. that William built their home, a large one-room log cabin. The stove was in one corner and they slept in the other.
Mildred Chism Bushnell remembers asking her grandfather, James Clement Owens, why his dad had moved down into southern Stone co. He said, "The fishing and hunting were better. They traded with Indians and the berries and grapes were plentiful. It was a very peaceful life." Daniel, John, and Dilly homesteaded close to their father. James also owned land nearby. James sold his son-in-law land adjoining the school house. As Mildred Bushnell says, "William Owens must have been a pretty nice guy, or he would not have kept his children so close."
In keeping with the thought of togetherness, William had the idea of a family cemetery, and such a plot was established in 1881 on about one acre of land that William and Sarah purchased on 5 June 1875, in the southwest corner, Section 11, Range 24W, Township 22N, Stone Co., MO. One of the stipulations in establishing this cemetery was that WJilliam would be the first buried there. He has now been dead and buried over 101 years (he died 15 Jan. 1882). I have been to the cemetery and have pictures of the stones and have the names of most of the people buried there. It is located 9-10 miles east of Hill City (on Highway #39, Barry Co., MO) on the banks of Table Rock Lake, turn right on the first road past the Owens Public Use Area and continue approximately one mile. The only road to thsi cemetery is unmarked and unpaved. The Owens cemetery was established in 1881.
Mildred writes, "I remember before Dilly tore down his father's house, Grandmother and I picked baskets of roses and went to the cemetery. She draped flowers on everyone's grave and she would call them by name. We would then visit William King and Sarah Owens' log house just across the road. It had the biggest fireplace I ever saw."
Nearby to the cemetery is what remains of the Owens School house. It has not been used for many years, but some of the relatives can tell stories about their teachers and teh lessons they learned there. James Clement Owens donated the seven acres of land, and James F. Banks, husband of Mary Dosha Owens Banks, built the Owens School house.
Leonard E. Carey
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1814 - 1882 (67 years)