Grundy-Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Owens, Dr JC January 3, 1857 - 
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Author: WW Stevens, 1907

Dr. J.C. Owens has been engaged in the practice of medicine in Plainfield for 
the past twenty-four years, removing to this village after a brief residence 
in Joliet. He was fresh from college and some hundreds of dollars in debt, but 
by strict attention to business he has accumulated a comfortable competence 
and has become recognized as one of the able members of the medical fraternity 
in his part of the county.

Dr. Owens was born in Oneida county, New York, January 3, 1857, and is a son 
of Henry and Nancy (Kees) Owens, who resided in Oneida county until called to 
their final rest a number of years ago. The Doctor has one brother and one 
sister residing at Rome, New York, James A. Owens being a druggist of that 
place, while the sister is Mrs. Fannie Mowers.

J.C. Owens was reared in the county of his nativity and after acquiring his 
literary education he determined upon the practice of medicine as a life work 
and began studying in Syracuse Medical College, from which he was graduated in 
the class of 1881. He supplemented his theoretical knowledge by broad and 
practical training of a year’s hospital experience as interne in the Rochester 
City Hospital, Rochester, New York, and thus well equipped for his profession 
he came to Will county, Illinois, where for a short time he engaged in 
practice in Joliet, having an office with Dr. Nash. He then removed to 
Plainfield, where he has resided for almost a quarter of a century. He soon 
demonstrated his ability to successfully cope with the intricate problems of 
the profession and as the years have gone by he has kept abreast with the best 
thinking men of the medical fraternity and by reading, study and experience 
has constantly broadened his knowledge and promoted his efficiency. In 1888 he 
established a drug store and three or four years later he added a jewelry 
department. He also opened a harness shop and all three business enterprises 
are prospering. As his financial resources have increased he has likewise 
invested in real estate and is now the owner of six hundred and eighty acres 
of finely improved land in Kendall county. This is divided into three farms, 
which he leases, and from his real estate he derives an excellent income. His 
present financial condition is in marked contrast to that of his earlier 
years. Coming to the county in limited financial circumstances, he has 
gradually worked his way upward until his name is today an honored one on 
commercial paper.

Dr. Owens was married in Grundy county to Miss Mary H. Hitchcock, of Morris, 
Illinois, who for a year was in the county treasurer’s office under George 
Munroe. Dr. and Mrs. Owens became parents of three children, but Robert H., 
their first born, died in infancy. The others are Kenneth H., who is a junior 
in the high school at the age of sixteen years; and Jay C., aged fourteen 
years, a grammar school student.

In his political views Dr. Owens is a stalwart republican, but without 
aspiration for office. Socially he is connected with the Modern Woodmen of 
America and he attends the Congregational church with his family. In 
professional lines he is connected with the Will County Medical Society. In a 
calling where advancement depends entirely upon individual merit, intellectual 
force and correct application of scientific principles to the practical needs 
of the sick room he has made steady progress, and by his close conformity to a 
high standard of professional ethics, combined with his ability, has won the 
unqualified respect and admiration of his fellow practitioners as well as of 
the general public.

Source: "Past and Present of Will County, Illinois" by W.W. Stevens, 1907, The 
S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, Chicago, Pages 584


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