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MEANING OF SURNAME "OWENS"
The Surname Owens means "Son of Owen", the personal name Owen being derived from the old Welch Ewen and ultimately from the Old Greek Euyenee (well born).
Early records mention Robertus Filtus Yewn in Warwickshire Pipe Rolls of 1200 A. D.. Nicholas Filtus Owen of Oxfordshire and Richard Filtus Owen of Cambridgeshire in the Hundred Rolls of 1273 A.D.
Owen Owens who died in 1593 was a noted eccleastice who held office of Arch Deacon of Anglesy.
Among early emigrants from Britain to America were Thomas and Jonathan Owens who are reported in Virginia in 1655. Michael Joseph Owens (1850-1923) was a talented American inventor.
Like most of the counties in Middle Tennessee, Maury was settled largely by revolutionary soldiers or their decendents.
The population of the county in its early history was largely from North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. North Carolina gave grants to her soldiers for military service in the Revolutionary War. These grants were located mainly in Middle Tennessee from which cause a large number of North Carolina soldiers settled in that part of the state and not a few in Maury County.
Santa Fe is near the center of District No. 22. It is one of the oldest settlements in the county. The Indian title having been extinguished north of the river before they were south of it, settlements began there earlier. The following families are said to have settled in the county in 1806: the Cougheons and Brooks on Snow Creek; McLeans, Neelys, Cinders, Griffins, Mitchells, Fitzgeralds, Dotys, Aydelottes, Piggs, Ayers, Bakers, Hills, Todds, Seagraves, Lockharts, OWENS and Emistons. In 1807 came the Reaves, Binghams, Wrens, Hunters, and McCrackens.
It is said that Santa Fe was called Pin Hook at first but was changed later to Benton. But on application for post office another change became necessary and it was given its present name of Santa Fe.
Reuben Owens
Reuben Owens was born in 1785 in Georgia. The family moved into Maury Co., TN, and settled in Dist. #19. Reuben married "Polly" Randall February 9, 1814. The marriage was officiated by Robert Sellers, Justice of the Peace in Columbia, TN. Born to this union were William King Owens, David, Noah B., Rachel Ann, Gilford I., Jemina, Thomas, John, and Martha Ann.
William Owens married Margaret Nance February 11, 1832, in Columbia, TN, and four children were born in Maury Co., TN, to this union.
Elizabeth: b. Nov. 1832, m. William Cole Aug. 15, 1849, Jefferson Co., MO.
Elias "Ike", born May 31, 1834; d. Aug. 1, 1915, Potosi, MO; bd. Shirley Cemetery, Shirley MO; m. Dec. 11, 1851, Washington Co., MO, to Sophia Elizabeth Harmon: b. May 1836, IN; d. and bd. Miami, OK; 14 children.
Reuben: b. Oct. 25, 1836; m. Sept.12, 1857, Washington Co., MO, Isabell A. Scott: b. 1839, Kentucky; 6 children.
Andrew: b. Oct. 24, 1938, and it is believed that his mother, Margaret, died in TN. Andrew appears in the 1840 Washington Co., MO, census, Harmony Twp, and we lose track of him after that.
William King Owens' sister, Rachel Ann, m. Clement Nance May 1, 1938, in Maury County. Clement was a brother to Margaret (Nance) Owens.
Huge lead fields were discovered in the rich Mississippi Valley country as early as 1700. This brought abut the migration of emigrants and the settlement of communities such as Potosi, MO.
In the years between 1820 and the Civil War, Potosi continued as a dynamic community, prominent in State affairs and center of the mining industry.
Court records will verify that Clement and Rachel Ann moved from TN into Washington CJo. in 1839. It is natural that William and his children should make the trip at the same time.
The 1840 Washington Co., MO, Census lists William and the four children in Harmony Twp. He had found what he was looking for, and there was promise for the future. Now, all that he needed was a wife to help raise the children and to share in his new found life.
William met a young red-headed girl in southern Illinois by the name of Sarah Ann McCray (McRay). They fell in love and planned to marry, but her father did not think it right that a 17 year old girl should marry an old man of 27 with 4 children. Love has a way of winning out, even though it meant running away from home and never seeing her parents again. This was a new beginning--in a new land.
A house was built, crops set in, and there was time for increasing the family. The children born here were Anna Isabelle, b. Oct. 29, 1844; William Brantley, b. April 17, 1846; Daniel McCray, b. Aug. 28, 1848; and Mary Dosha Ann, b. Feb. 16, 1850.
Sometime between the 1850 census and 1852, William moved his family to Newton Co., MO, leaving Elizabeth, Elias and Reuben in Washington Co., as they had married and were settled in their own homes. Three more children were born to William and Sarah Ann at Granby, MO. They were James Clement, b. June 18, 1852; Hugh Jefferson, b. June 15, 1854; and John Anderson, b. April 14, 1856.
A photograph shows Dilly Fate Owens, 15th child of William King Owens, and his mother, Sarah Ann (McCray) Owens. The picture was taken a short time after William's death on January 15, 1882.
In 1858, William moved his family to Stone Co., MO, where he built his one room log cabin near the confluence of the James and the White rivers. Here they had four more children: Mahaila, b. March 31, 1859; Drucilla, b. April 25, 1861; Roland, b. April 20,1865; and Dilly Fate, b. May 24, 1872.
The information contained herein does not include the families of the first group of children, as they did not live in Stone Co., MO, as far as we have determined. All of the other children grew up in Stone Co. Their families are limited to the children and grandchildren for this account.
by Leonard E. Carey
History of Stone County, Missouri pp. 553-554
Stone County, Missouri, Historical Society 1989
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