EBEN OWEN

Sacramento County

Biographies

EBEN OWEN

Eben Owen was born in Portland, Maine, November 26, 1812, his parents being Eben and Sarah (Barlett) Owen. The grandfather was also named Eben or Ebenezer. Father and grandfather both lived to a good old age, longevity being, being as far as known, a hereditary trait in the family. Grandmother Owen was a Miss Cotton, and the Cottons and Barletts are of New England stock for many generations, the former of New Hampshire and the latter of Maine, from which they have spread in various directions throughout the country but are still most numerous in the East. The father of the subject of this sketch kept a grocery store for many years in Portland, and the son helped in the store in boyhood: Was educated in the city schools, and when working in the store, he attended night school. In 1838 he went to New Orleans with a view of getting a clerkship, in which he was disappointed. Learning of a chance at Jackson, Louisiana, he went there and remained ten years, filling different situations. In the fall of 1849 he set out for California by way of New Orleans and the Isthmus and arrived at San Francisco, February 22, 1850, sixty-nine days being spent in the voyage on the Pacific. His comrade was Harvey D. Smith who with himself and three others formed a small party of five. When in San Francisco, they hired a room about ten feet square, for which they paid $50 a month, and the landlord complained bitterly of the heavy decline in rents. In March they went in a small sail-boat to Stockton, paying $20 each. After a trip of five days on the river, they camped on the peninsula, and there remained several weeks, the roads being too bad to travel. They walked a good part of the way, the roads being still in bad condition. Stopped short of their destination and went to mining on a branch of the Calaveras, where they spent the summer of 1850. Afterward mined at different points—Mokelumne Bar, Jackson Creek and Indian Diggings, in all about two years; net result to Mr. Owen only about $1,200. He then came to Sacramento and went to clerking for Mr. Briggs, a stock buyer, grocer and speculator, to whom his friend Smith had loaned a considerable amount, and himself a few hundreds. Mr. Briggs becoming embarrassed through over speculation and ruinous rates of interest, Mr. Smith became owner of the grocery business in partial settlement of his claim, Mr. Owen continuing as partner. In the fall of 1852 Mr. Smith died of sporadic cholera, leaving his estate in charge of Mr. Owen, with directions to send $1,000 to a crippled brother and the rest to his father, in New York which was done. The firm of Smith & Owen lasted but two or three months. Needing a reliable assistant, he sold Mr. Smith’s interest to a Mr. Haskell, but only for about three months, when Mr. Haskell, urged by his wife to return to his home in Michigan, settled with Mr. Owen on the basis of wages for the time he had been in the firm, pleading that “domestic happiness is worth more than money.” The firm then became Owen & Estes, for a year or more; then Owen & Chamberlain for about the length of time. In 1854, Mr. Owen bought the Central Hay-yard on Tenth, Eleventh and T streets, which he rented for more than ten years. It, when purchased, rented for $3,000, and when sold was renting for $300 a year. In 1855 he sold out his old business to Charles S. White and went back to Portland, Maine, where he was married to Miss Mary W. Dole, a native of that State, of an old and respected family. In 1857, after eighteen month sojourn in Portland, during which he was chiefly occupied in erecting and fitting up a home and some income buildings for his parents, he returned to California. In 1866 he bought the ranch he still owns on the Cosumnes in Franklin Township, containing about 1,250 acres of good average land, chiefly cultivated for wheat, but on a part of which he has now a young orchard. He at one time owned a ranch in Solano County, on which he raised sheep and grain, but losing nearly 2,000 sheep in one dry season he gave up the business there and sold the place. In 1866 Mrs. Owen died at the early age of about twenty-eight years, leaving two boys: Eben Bartlett, born October 25, 1861, and Harry Dole, born December 26, 1863. In 1868 he moved on the ranch, but returned to Sacramento some years afterward for the better education of his sons. In the country, they rode five miles to the district school. Besides the usual education there and in the city each took a course in the Atkinson Business College. Both are now engaged on the ranch, each having charge of a definite portion of the estate. The father usually resides in the city where he retains his old home, and visits the ranch occasionally. He is an earnest spiritualist and finds much comfort in that faith, in which he has believed for thirty years. He is possessed of mediumistic powers and is controlled by spirits other than his own, as he believes. Harry Dole Owen, the younger son, was married December 15, 1885, to Miss Maggie Utter, a native of Franklin Township, daughter of Dowty and Amanda (Hall) Utter. The father was originally a book-keeper, and afterward a rancher two and a half miles south of Franklin on the lower Stockton road. He died in 1869, at the early age of thirty-two; the mother is now Mrs. J. W. Moore, of the same place. Mr. and Mrs. Harry D. Owen are the parents of two children: William Eben, born November 15, 1887, and May Gladys, born 31, 1889.

Transcribed by Karen Pratt.

Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated History of Sacramento County, California. Pages 541-543. Lewis Publishing Company. 1890.

Sacramento County Biographies