San
Joaquin County
Biographies
JOHN H. OWEN
For nearly ten years John H. Owen
has been humane officer of San Joaquin County and in that period has settled
satisfactorily many cases involving cruelty to children and to animals. Broad-minded, with varied experience in many
lines, he has made an ideal official.
The Owen family came here from Tennessee, our subject having been born
in Meigs County, October 15, 1862. He is
the son of James R. Owen, a native of Kentucky, and Catherine (Hunt) Owen, a
native of Tennessee. When
six years old, in 1869, young John came with his parents to San Joaquin County
on one of the first of the transcontinental steam trains. James R. Owen farmed grain in Farmington and
Waterloo districts, locating Farmington way in 1872 and remaining there until
his death in 1907. He was a member of
the Linden Lodge of Masons. The
surviving children of Mr. and Mrs. James R. Owen include Henry T., of
Bakersfield; John H., of this sketch; William S., civil engineer with the San
Joaquin Highway Commission; Walter J., deputy sheriff of San Joaquin County;
Mrs. Partelia J. Blair and Mrs. Myra E. Bryson, both
of Stockton.
John H. Owen attended the public
schools of the Wheatland district and Stockton Business College. For three years, then, he farmed grain on
rented land. After this he was engaged
in merchandising, taking into partnership B. F. Long in Farmington. The firm prospered for six years as Long
& Owen, when the partnership was dissolved.
Mr. Owen resumed ranching until 1905.
He bought 560 acres at the southern end of San Joaquin, near the
Stanislaus County border, which he sowed to grain but later sold the
tract. Then he leased the Leach ranch in
Stanislaus County, raising grain for six years.
Back to San Joaquin he moved, in 1900, purchasing 411 acres near
Escalon; he farmed to grain until 1905.
Anxious to bring his children the
advantages of Stockton schools, Mr. and Mrs. Owen brought the family there,
leasing his ranch. He followed the
realty business for some time, and then the butcher’s. Meanwhile in 1907 the mounting costs of
irrigation prompted him to subdivide his 411 acres into 30 acre tracts, which
he readily disposed of to settlers at $60 an acre. Little did he dream that most of this land
would change hands in 1920 at $550 an acre.
In 1912 Mr. Owen was persuaded to become County Humane Officer by the
Humane Committee of San Joaquin County and he has faithfully filled that
exacting position. Besides his public
work he has been interested as member in Oakdale Lodge of Masons, Farmington
Lodge of Odd Fellows and Stockton Camp, Woodmen of the World.
Mrs. Owen was Miss Sarah E. Griffin,
born near Farmington. Her father was
Mitchell Griffin, a California Forty-niner, who crossed the continent with ox
teams over the poorly marked trails and became a large rancher and
landowner. Her mother also crossed the
prairies and mountains as a girl in ’49, with her parents behind ox teams. Three children compose the family of Mr. and
Mrs. John H. Owen: Alvin George, with
the Associated Creamery Company of Modesto; Elizabeth, now Mrs. Chester W.
Conklin, of Stockton; and Arthur L. Owen, a member of Stockton’s Police
Department.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
1263-1264. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County Biographies
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County Genealogy
Databases