Person:Edward Owen (11)

BIOGRAPHY: Descendants of John Owen of Windsor, Connecticut (1622-1699) A Genealogy Edited by Ralph Dornfeld Owen Philadelphi 1941

  Edward Franklin Owen (William R 6, Jonathan 5, Isaac 4, Josiah II 3, Josiah 2, John 1), son of William R. and Chloe (Hatch) Owen (F6-I6), was born 12 Jan. 1819 at Boston, Erie County, N. Y. He married at Buena Vista, Clinton County, Iowa, 29 Oct. 1853, Marcena Knight, daughter of William and Roxanna (Alger) Knight. She was born 28 Aug. 1835. He died 6 Jan. 1899 and was buried at Calamus, Clinton Co., Iowa. She died 1 April 1895.
  At the age of twenty he went West. He had money enough to pay most of his journey. But when he got to the Mississippi River at Fulton, Ill., he didn't have money enough left to pay the toll. So he pawned his shoes for the toll money.
  For some years he taught school. Later he took up government land farmed. But he was by disposition not fitted for farming. In 1871 he moved off his farm in Olivet Township, Clinton County, and settled in Calamus. There was no lawyer in the town at the time. He soon became justice of the peace and notary, and for the rest of his life he was known as "Squre" Owen.
  History of Clinton County, Iowa, says of him: "Squire Owen is a man of large ability, eminently fitted for public service. He serves the town from a sense of duty and for the people. He is a man in whose hands the affairs of the public are managed with honesty and liberality,-a man who labors for the best good of each man personally and who strives to fill with honor the position to which he has bee appointed. He has won his way in hard labor and strong effort up to the point where he now stands"
  He acquired extensive holding of land. He maintained a very liberal standard of living. His home was the first in the community to have a piano and a brussels carpet.