Owen History of Greene County, Indiana
From History of Greene County Vol. 2
The name Owen has been intimately associated with the history of Greene county since the first pioneers penetrated the wilderness, from which remote period to the present time representatives of this sturdy family have contributed to the development of the country and to the establishing of a community which in all the concerns material advancement and a high state of civilization and enlightenment is not surpassed by any like area within the bounds of the Hoosier state. They have not only been active participants in promoting the material interests of the respective localities where they lived and bore their parts. but, realizing the needs of their fellow men, they have supplied the same with unsparing hands, and today there are few names so closely interwoven with the progress of the county and none more influential in enterprises for the general good or more highly honored by the public at large.
According to well authenticated genealogical history, this founder of the American branch of the Owen family came to this country as a soldier in the army of Lord Cornwallis during the war of the Revolution, but shortly after his arrival deserted his command, refusing to fight a struggling people, the justice of whose cause appealed to him with peculiar and irresistible force. This act precluding the possibility of his return to England, he subsequently settled in Surry County, North Carolina, where her married, secured a tract of land, and in due time became a well-to-do planter and public-spirited citizen whose influence tended greatly to the material development and moral advancement of the community in which he located. Beyond the fact of his having established a home in North Carolina and reared a family, but little is know of the life of this soldier and patriot save that, as already indicated, he was a man of high character and sterling worth.
Among his immediate descendants was a son by the name of John H. a native of the Old North state, who married Susan Elrod and in 1817 migrated to Indiana and settled near the town of Paoli, thence, after a brief residence, moved to Greene County, of which he was an early pioneer. Entering land, John Owen cleared and developed a farm which continued in possession of the family until within a comparatively recent date, being owned at this time by the heirs of Simon Bland, who married the widow of Armstead Owen and purchased the place of the later's children.
The family of John H. and Susan Owen consisted of four children, one of whom, a son by the name of John G., whose birth occurred on the eighth day of August, 1818, was the first child born within the present linits of Greene county. John G. Owen was reared amid the rugged scenes of the pioneer period and at the age of twenty-seven married his cousin, Margaret Mock, locating on the farm now owned by his son, John D., where he lived a number of years in the peaceful pursuit of agriculture. He was a man of mark in the community, served as township trustee and county commissioner and was long an active and influential member of the Baptist church. The following are the names of the children born to this estimable couple: Roxanna, whose birth occured in 1846, married George W. Lovall and died a few years ago; Emily, born in the year 1849, departed this life in childhood; Susan E., born in 1855, also deceased, was the wife of Cyrus Knox; John D. born in 1858, is a farmer living on the family homestead; Stephen, born in 1861, is deceased; Thomas C, of this review, who first saw the light of day in the year 1852; and Margaret, who was born in 1864 and died in 1908.
Thomas C. Owen was reared on the home farm and received a practical education in the public schools. At the proper age he began life for himself as a tiller of the soil, which in connection with the raising of live stock, occupied his attention until 1890, when he moved to Bloomfield to take charge of the auditor's office,to which he had been elected in the fall of that year. At the expiration of his official term he changed his residence to Worthington and became identified with the Commercial Bank of that place, in which capacity he continued during the ensuing three years.Meeting with encouraging success the meantime and earning honorable repute as an able financier and capable business man. Mr. Owen severed his connection with the bank in 1897 and since that time has given his attention to his large agricultural and live stock interests, owning a fine farm of three hundred and eighty acres of fertile and highly improved land, the greater part under cultivation and admirably adapted to the purposes to which it is devoted.
He still resides in Worthington, where he owns a beautiful, modern home, but personally manages the farm, which under his direction, has become one of the best and most desirable country places in Greene county. As farmer, official and business man, Mr. Owen's career has ever been characterized by mature judgement, wisely directed energies and kindly regard for the rights and privileges of others and with spotless integrity and an honored name, he occupies today a conspicuous and inflluential position among his fellow citizens, enjoying in full measure the confidence of all with whom he has relations, business and other wise.
Mr. Owen was married November 10, 1875, to Miss Josephine Stalcup, daughter of George B. and Mary (Buckner) Stalcup, of Greene County, and has a family of five children namely: Maude, a teacher in Worthington High school, born in 1877; Mary, wife of Carl G. Smith, born in 1880; Corwin S., born in the year 1885; Grace, born in 1886, and John G., who was born in 1889.
Mr. Owen is one of the influential Republicans of Greene county and a leader in his party. The Presbyterian church represents his religious creed, to which denomination his family also belong.
Mrs. Owen's people like those of her husband, were among the earliest white settlers of Greene county. Issac Stalcup moved to this part of the state from North Carolina in 1817. His wife bore him twenty-two children, among the number being a son, Isaac, who was born in 1786 in North Carolina, came to Greene county two years after his father's arrival and died her in 1872. George B. Stalcup, oldest son of James, also a native of North Carolina, became a resident of Greene county in 1834. He married Mary Buckner, whose birth occurred in the Old North state in 1813, and who accompanied her parents to Greene county when a child. She became the mother of fourteen children of whom Mrs. T.C. Owen and a sister Mary C. Buchner, are the only survivors.