ELIAS D. OWEN. Among those who have made farming in Morris township a thorough success, is Elias D. Owen. He is a son of Aaron Owen, and a grandson of John Owen, whose father emigrated from Wales in the early part of the eighteenth century, and located in New Jersey, where he married, and reared a family of children, of whom John Owen is the only one recorded. John Owen married a Miss Pool in New Jersey, who bore him five children, all boys, as follows: Benjamin, Daniel, John, Aaron and Gudiah. The parents died in New Jersey, as also did their son John. Daniel emigrated to Ohio, thence to Michigan, where he died. Aaron, Benjamin and Gudiah all emigrated to Washington county, Penn. Benjamin came first, and located in Morris township, followed by Gudiah. Aaron Owen, father of our subject, came next, locating in Morris township about 1822. He was born in New Jersey about 1796, and there married Mary D. Day. He was a weaver by trade, which occupation he followed for some time after coming to Washington county. Three children were born to them here Phoebe, Lavina and Benjamin, all of whom are living. Phoebe, widow of Edmund McVay, lives in Greene county, Penn. Lavina, wife of John Young, lives in the same county. Benjamin married Julia Day, and lives near Jacksonville, Greene Co., Penn.; he is an elder of the Jacksonville C. P. Church. The father died in 1854, and the mother in 1883. Both were Cumberland Presbyterians. Elias D. Owen, the eldest child of Aaron and Mary Owen, was born in New Jersey, July 24, 1819, and came to Washington county in 1822 with his parents at the age of eighteen years; he joined the Cumberland Presbyterian Church at West Union and has been a Sabbath-school teacher ever since. In 1842 he married Sarah Auld, born June 17, 1822, whose ancestors came from Ireland about the middle of the eighteenth century, locating in New Jersey, whence they moved to Washington county soon after 1800. After his marriage Mr. Owen moved to what was then known as the "Jolly Farm," where he has since resided. James E. Ray, half brother of Aaron Owen, and uncle of Elias Owen, was born in the year 1807, and married Margaret Lenord. Three children blessed their union. The eldest, I. M. Ray, elected congressman in 1888, is a prominent lawyer in Waynesburgh, Greene Co., Penn; the second, J. L. Ray, a resident of Morris township, Greene Co., died in 1893, aged thirty-six years. His daughter Jane, who married John Powers, died some years ago. To the union of Elias D. Owen and Sarah Auld there were born two children: Caroline, the eldest, was born in 1843, and married Milton Robertson, whose death occurred April 2, 1875; Mrs. Robertson and children have since lived with her parents. Mary Ann, born 1853, married B. F. Reeves, and is the mother of six children. Mr. Owen, although well along in years is still able to do a day's work on the farm, to which he gives his personal attention. He is possessed of a remarkably strong constitution, having sustained on three different occasions injuries that would ordinarily have resulted in death. In politics Mr. Owen was a Democrat prior to 1884, but his views on the tariff question being at variance with those advocated in the platform of that year, he voted for Blaine, and has since been an active supporter of the principles of the Republican party. On his farm Mr. Owen gives considerable attention to sheep raising, in which he has been remarkably successful, his flocks never having, in his fifty years' experience, been affected with an epidemic so common in that section. Mr. Owen has made life a success in many ways, not excepting financially. He is a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, at West Union, as is also his wife. Mr. Owen's grandfather, on his mother's side, was Samuel Day, who was born in New Jersey, and there married Sophia Hayden, who bore him twenty-one children, eighteen of whom lived to maturity and raised families. In 1831 the family of Samuel Day had a reunion, there being present seventy-five representatives. He joined the Presbyterian Church early in life; but when the Cumberland Presbyterians organized here in 1831, he joined the congregation of that church at Old Concord, becoming an active member thereof and serving as elder for several years. He then moved to Athens, Ohio, with the intention of having a Cumberland Presbyterian Church organized there, which he soon succeeded in accomplishing. He died some time afterward in the triumph of a living faith.

Text taken from page 1186 of: Beers, J. H. and Co., Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893). Transcribed February 1997 by Neil and Marilyn Morton of Oswego, IL as part of the Beers Project. Published March 1997 on the Washington County, PA USGenWeb pages at http://www.chartiers.com/.

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