Cleburne County AlArchives Biographies.....Owen, Bartlett December 3 1814 - living in 1893
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/al/alfiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Ann Anderson alabammygrammy@aol.com May 15, 2004, 11:26 pm

Author: Brant & Fuller (1893)
  BARTLETT OWEN, one of the old pioneers of Cleburne county and ex-probate
judge, was born in Spartanburg district, S. C., December 3, 1814, son of Tadens
and Jane (Tomison) Owen, both natives of South Carolina. The father was a
soldier in the war of 1812, and was a son of James and Nancy Owen, of Welsh
descent. The mother was of English descent. The judge was reared on the farm.
His parents removed to Georgia while he was quite young and he grew to manhood
in Franklin county; being of poor parentage he was forced to leave Georgia and
seek a new home. He said to himself "If I remain in Georgia I will be a slave
all my life," and in 1835 he came to Alabama to seek his fortune among the wilds
of the unbroken forest. He settled within four miles of Edwardsville, and the
first year cleared up about six acres, which he planted in corn, and made his
little crop with nothing but the hoe. When he landed in Alabama he had only $1
left, and this dollar he gave to "boot" between an old ax he had for a good one.
While making this crop, all kinds of reports were in circulation about the
Indians going to kill all the whites, and he, in common with all other pioneers,
would carry his rifle into the field ready for an attack at any time, and in
May, 1836, the Indians had become so ferocious that it was unsafe for the whites
to sleep in their cabins, and they would gather a few families together and lie
out in the woods during the night and work their little crops during the day. It
was by enduring these hardships and facing the dangerous redskins around him
that he made his start in this world. After he had his crop made he traded some
of the corn, of which he then had an abundance - for he made fifty bushels to
the acre with nothing but the hoe - for an Indian pony, the first horse that he
had ever owned. He then entered forty acres of wild land, here cleared up a spot
and gave out the word that he wanted to build a house, and his neighbors came
for miles around to help their brother-pioneer erect the cabin, and it was here
in the little log hut, surrounded by Indians and wild game, that the golden
moments of his life were spent. February 5, 1834, he married Charlotte Watkins,
daughter of John G. and Charity (Davis) Watkins of South Carolina. This union
was prolific in the birth of thirteen children, of whom twelve are still living
- Charity J., Mary A., Sarah A., Charlotte J., Elizabeth, Nancy, James O.,
William J., Bartlett D., John T. and Buchanan. The mother was born in South
Carolina and both parents are members of the Baptist church. They have in all -
children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, 141. Mr. Owen is a man that had
but little education, but has been in pulbic office several years. In 1854, he
was tax assessor of Calhoun county, and served continuously seven years, and in
1861 he was elected sheriff of Calhoun county, but resigned after serving one
and a half years only. In 1874 he was elected probate judge of Cleburne county
and served six years; in 1886, he was again elected to the same office, his time
expiring November 1, 1892. The judge has been a father to Cleburne county. He is
one of the solid old citizens and has the entire confidence of his constituents.
Although he is an uneducated man, but few of his decisions have been reversed.



Additional Comments:
from "Memorial Record of Alabama", Vol. I, p. 653-654

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/alfiles/

File size: 3.9 Kb