BIO: Owens, James K. - Wayne Co., Ky Date: Sat, 24 Oct 1998 16:18:02 -0500 Submitted by: "Diana Flynn" OWENS, ANDERSON, SUTHERLAND, WASHBURN, YOUNG, MASTERSON, CARSON "HISTORY OF LAWRENCE AND MONROE COUNTIES, INDIANA, THEIR PEOPLE, INDUSTRIES AND INSTITUTIONS." 1914. B. F. Bowen & Co., Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana. PAGE 641 JAMES K. OWENS The Union soldier during the great war between the states builded wiser than he knew. Through four years of suffereing and wasting hardships, through the horrors of prison pens and amid the shadows of death, he laid the superstructure of the greatest temple ever erected and dedicated to human freedom. The world looked on and called those soldiers sublime, for it was theirs to reach out the mighty arm of power and strike the chains from off the slave, preserve the country from dissolution, and to keep furled to the breeze the only flag that ever made tyrants tremble and whose majestic stripes and scintillating stars are still waving universal liberty to all the earth. For all the unmeasured deeds the living present will never repay them. Pension and political power may be thrown at their feet; art and sculpture may commit to books and cold type may give to the future the tale of their sufferings and triumphs; but to the children of the generations yet unborn will it remain to accord the full measure of appreciation and undying rememberance of the immortal character carved out by the American soldiers in the dark days of the early sixties, numbered among whom was the gentleman whose name appears at the head of this sketch. James K. Owens, who is now living in honorable retirement at this comfortable home in Bedford, Indiana, was born in Wayne county, Kentucky, on the 17th day of August, 1844. He is the son of Washington and Peggy (Anderson) Owens, the former a native of the state of North Carolina and the latter of good old Irish stock. The subject's paternal grandfather was Joseph Owens, while his maternal grandfather was John Anderson, a native of Ireland. These gentlemen respectively located in Kentucky, where they spent the remainder of their lives and died. Washington Owens, the subject's father, received but a limited education and during his lifetime devoted himself to farming pursuits and also operated a large distillery on his farm. Eventually he went to Arkansas and later to Dallas, Texas, during the war, dying in that state. His wife had died in Kentucky. T The subject of this sketch was their only child, and at the age of seventeen years he left home, he and his father having had some differences of opinion because of the fact that the subject wished to enlist in the Union army, against which his father protested. However, in August, 1862, James K. Owens enlisted as a private in the Thirty-second Regiment, Kentucky Volunteer Infantry, at Danville, under Captain Harrison Hert, and was commissioned a corporal. His first period of enlistment having expired, he was mustered out in 1863, but on August 13th of the same year he re-enlisted as a private in Company E, Thirteenth Regiment of Cavalry, under Captain William D. Lowe, with which he served until January 10, 1865, when, at Camp Nelson in Kentucky, he was honorably discharged. During his first enlistement he served in Kentucky, Tennessee and Ohio, being principally assigned to scout duty, while during his second enlistment he did scout and skirmish duty, being engaged at Killing's Salt Works, Lookout Mountain, Perrysville, Traversville, and was with General Sherman during his celebrated campaign. After the close of the war Mr. Owens, came to Lawrence county, Indiana, locating at Leesville, was engaged in farming for a year. He then went home and for seven years operated a farm, at the end of which time he came to Bedford, Indiana, and was employed in the stone quarry for fifteen years. Later he engaged in the timber business, in which his business attained to extensive proportions and in which he was very prosperous, so that in 1908 he was enabled to retire from an active business life and has since been spending his time quietly at his home at No. 718 J street, Bedford, where is enjoying the fruits of his former years of toil. On March 24, 1861, Mr. Owens married Angeletty Sutherland, of Wayne county, Kentucky, a daughter of Jonathan and Polly (Washburn) Sutherland, of that county, where they lived and died, the father having been a blacksmith and a first-class workman in every respect. Mr. and Mrs. Sutherland were the parents of twelve children, of whom only two are now living, Charles, a farmer living at Dallas, Texas, and Mrs. Owens. To Mr. and Mrs. Owens were born three children: Charles W., a railroad engineer for many years, resides in Bedford, Indiana; he married Mary Young and they have three children, Roman, Hubert and Ralph; Roxie Ann Owens is the widow of John Masterson, of Salem, Washington county, Indiana, who was a bridge carpenter and also an expert shorthand writer. Mrs. Masterson who is now living in Indianapolis, is the mother of one child, Lorrie; Eva Owens is the widow of C. Carson and she has one child, Oliver F. They make their home with her father, the subject. Fraternally, Mr. Owens is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic at Bedford, Indiana, while Mrs. Owens belongs to the auxiliary order, the Ladies' Relief Corps. Mr. Owens was a delegate to the state encampment of the Grand Army at Indianapolis, Terre Haute and Crawfordsville. Religiously, Mr. and Mrs. Owens are earnest and faithful members of the Methodist Episcopal church and in their daily lives exemplify the principal of the religion which they profess. They are both people of broad sympathies and take an abiding interest in the welfare of those about them, and, because of the genial dispositions and high character, they enjoy a large popularity in the community where they have spent so many years. NOTE from Diana: The next to last paragraph was out of order. 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