William L. Owen

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William L. Owen[1]
Portrait of William L. Owen
Member of the Virginia House of Delegates from Halifax County
In office
1865–1867
Member of the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1867[2]
In office
December 3, 1867 – April 24, 1868
Member of the Committee of Nine
In office
1868–1869
Personal details
BornApril 29, 1809
Black Walnut or Mayo, Halifax County, Virginia U.S.
DiedJuly 22, 1881 (aged 72)
Cluster Springs, Halifax County, Virginia U.S.
SpouseHarriot Amanda Easley
ChildrenMary Ann Owen, Robert Lee Owen, Thomas Easley Owen, Hallie B. Owen, Daniel William Owen, Fannie Craddock Owen, Archibald Alexander Owen, Charlie H. Owen, Helen Owen, John Bailey Owen, Rufus Owen
Parent(s)John Owen, Nancy Easley Owen
OccupationBusinessman, Politician

William L. Owen (April 29, 1809 – July 22, 1881) was a prominent planter, businessman, and politician from Halifax County, Virginia. As a politician, he served in the House of Delegates of Virginia, the Committee of Nine, and the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1867. He was a trustee of Virginia Military Institute and Hampden-Sydney College.

Early life and education[edit]

William L. Owen was born April 29, 1809, the second son of John Owen and Nancy Easley of Black Walnut, Virginia,[3] now known as Cluster Springs. Both John and his father Robertson Owen were planters in Halifax County.

Family lore is that he was born in a home named 'Mayo' that takes its name from a community where the Mayo Creek is crossed by modern-day Highway 96 in southeastern Black Walnut District.[4] His brother, Robert Easley Owen, and his nephew, Thomas Howerton Owen, lived in this home the rest of their lives. Census records may verify this.

The Last Will and Testament of his father specified that “my children ... to be given what is generally understood to be a common school education, such as reading, writing and common arithmetic”.[1]

Little else is known of his early life and education.

Professional life[edit]

Business[edit]

“He followed his father’s footsteps into business in Granville County, North Carolina, but soon returned to Cluster Springs and built his home ‘Elwood Farm’ which still stands.”[3]

William L. Owen was a director for many years of the Richmond and Danville Railroad.[5]

Before the Civil War[edit]

Family lore tells that as the Civil War approached and began, Owen's extensive business connections in both northern and southern states lead him to believe that the South could not prevail against the industrial strength of the North.[4]

William L. Owen served as a District Commissioner for Halifax County, Virginia according to Acts of the General Assembly of Virginia: Passed in 1852, in the Seventy-sixth Year of the Commonwealth.[6]

American Civil War[edit]

Family lore tells that William L. Owen owned a cotton broker business in Milton, North Carolina and purchased cotton from farmers during the Civil War.[4]

"In a letter to John Bennett dated May 19, 1865, Owen sums up the economic state of himself and Virginia: "I shall lose largely by the war tho' I made no investments in Confederate securities and at no time had any confidence in Confederate money. But the failure of the Confederacy carries with it all of our Banks and probably most of the State and County securities..."[7]".[8]

Virginia House of Delegates[edit]

William L. Owen "was a part of the major actions of the government and citizens to bring Virginia back into the Union, an effort which found him alongside, and sometimes caught between, many erstwhile advocates of the New South and Southern traditionalists."[8]

William L. Owen was a member of the House of Delegates of Virginia from 1865 to 1867,[9] serving on the following committees:

  • Second Auditor's Office (1865-1866) (Chair)
  • Executive Expenditures (1866-1867)
  • Finance Resolutions (1866-1867)

According to oral history, one of his former slaves served in the House of Delegates of Virginia at the same time as he.[10][4] While the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Commission of the Virginia General Assembly identifies eight African-Americans who served Halifax County in the House and Constitutional Convention, one, Alexander Owen, shares the family name:

“Alexander Owen, a slave, was a rock mason who was born in 1830 or 1831 to Patrick and Lucy Hughes Owen. Mr. Owen represented Halifax County in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1869 to 1871.”[11]

Mr. Owen did serve with David Canada, an African-American, in the Constitutional Convention of 1867[11][12]

Further research is needed to determine if either of these two individuals were former slaves of Owen.

Virginia Convention[edit]

William L. Owen served in the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1867.

"Owen voted as a Conservative throughout the convention with only one exception: he voted with the Radicals against a "roll call on the adoption of a minority report of the Committee on the Franchise ... [which failed to enfranchise Blacks.".[13] According to the minutes of the debate, he disagreed with some proposed provisions, especially funding sources in the form of taxes from exempt businesses.[14] The convention was factious, and members argued extensively over issues the Federal Government required them to address in the Reconstruction Constitution. Owen felt the pressure acutely and wrote in April 1868 to a family member: "How a wise and rational government could have contrived - and can continue [these policies]... is to me the greatest wonder and astonishment of my life. I have been through all the trials until now intensely National in my feelings. At great peril to my reputation amongst my own people and kindred...and fully I plead for the Union and upheld its authority. Is it human nature to continue to live and cherish a Government so cruel?"[15]"[8]

He authored the Address of the conservative members of the late state convention, to the people of Virginia[16] available at HathiTrust Digital Library.

His participation in the Constitutional Convention and Committee of Nine is recorded in The Debates and proceedings of the Constitutional convention of the state of Virginia[17] available at HathiTrust Digital Library and recounted in The Constitution of Virginia: An Annotated Edition.[18]

Committee of Nine[edit]

During the Reconstruction, he played a major role in the Committee of Nine.

Trustee[edit]

He was a member of the Board of Visitors of Virginia Military Institute from 1864 to 1871. Later in life, he was referred to as “Colonel”, but this must have been an honorary title since he did not attend VMI and does not appear to have been in the military.[19]

He was elected to the Board of Trustees of Hampden-Sydney College June 13, 1876 and served until his death in 1881.[20] At least two of his sons attended Hampden-Sydney College and one son, Archibald Alexander Owen, married a daughter of Hampden-Sydney College President John M. P. Atkinson.[8]

Marriage and children[edit]

On September 3, 1842, he married Harriet Amanda Easley, daughter of Thomas Easly and Harriet C. Bailey Easley, and they began married life by moving into ‘Elwood’ in Cluster Springs. They had eleven children:

  • Mary Ann Owen (September 11, 1843 – August 17, 1927)
  • Robert Lee Owen (February 6, 1846 – December 7, 1871)
  • Thomas Easley Owen (January 1, 1848 – June 10, 1865) Died at 17 as a Federal prisoner of war at Pt. Lookout, Maryland.
  • Hallie B. Owen (June 12, 1849 – January 10, 1931)
  • Daniel William Owen (June 24, 1852 – September 27, 1937) Served in the House of Delegates of Virginia 1914 to 1923 for County of Halifax
  • Fannie Craddock Owen (July 11, 1853 – December 20, 1940)
  • Archibald Alexander Owen (April 3, 1856 – April 6, 1926)
  • Charlie H. Owen (October 25, 1857 – December 13, 1858)
  • Helen Owen (April 28, 1860 – June 11, 1937)
  • John Bailey Owen (Mar 21, 1863 – November 3, 1950)
  • Rufus Owen (October 29, 1867 – November 18, 1931).

In 1857, the Owen family moved into a larger home, ‘Sunnyview’,[21] later destroyed by fire and rebuilt by his son Rufus Owen.

He was a Mason and an Elder in the Presbyterian Church.

Death and legacy[edit]

He died July 22, 1881,[5][22][23] leaving an estate valued at $999,990.[3] The record of his estate is on file at the Circuit Court Halifax County, Virginia in Book 35, Page 650.

The Owen Memorial in Gwangju, South Korea is named for Owen and his grandson Dr. Clement Carrington Owen, son of Robert Lee Owen. Dr. Owen was a missionary in Korea and died there April 3, 1909. Dr. Georgiana E. Whiting Owen, his wife, organized funding of this building in memorial to William L. Owen and Dr. Clement Owen.

"The Owen Monument and Memorial Hall is located inside the Christian College of Nursing. The monument was erected in 1914 in memory of missionary Clement Owen who, together with Priest Bae Yoo-ji, was the first missionary to come to Jeollanam-do Province. The monument was built using the 4,200 dollars collected by Owen’s relatives in the USA after Owen died as a martyr in Gwangju.

A Western-style building with a total surface area of 434 square meters (including the annex building), the monument is said to have been used as chapel and assembly room. Today, the building serves as the auditorium of the Christian College of Nursing.

Clement Owen came to Yangnim-dong, Gwangju in the 1900s and served as a missionary and medical volunteer with his wife, who was a nurse, before dying of exhaustion and overwork in 1909. Owen had hoped to build a memorial hospital in honor of his grandfather, but died before his plan was materialized. The plaque hanging in the hall honors both men in English and Chinese reading, “In Memory of William L. and Clement C. Owen.""[24]

The Hon. W.L. Owen Scholarship at Hampden-Sydney College was dedicated in his honor in 2009 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of his birth.[8]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Manning, J.W.; Manning, Edna Anderson (1958). Our Kin. Agusta: Walton Printing Co.
  2. ^ Stuart, Alexander H. H. "A narrative of the leading incidents of the organization of the first popular movement in Virginia in 1865 to re-establish peaceful relations between the northern and southern states, and the subsequent efforts of the "Committee of Nine," in 1869, to secure the restoration of Virginia to the Union". Library of Congress. Richmond, Va.: W. E. Jones, Printer. pp. 23–24. Retrieved May 21, 2017.
  3. ^ a b c Owen, Jr., Dr. John Atkinson. William L. Owen, undated biography provided at a family reunion July 19–21, 1995.
  4. ^ a b c d Family lore. Generally from descendants of William L. Owen and is included here to enable further research.
  5. ^ a b Obituary: Hon. William L. Owen, The Wilmington Morning Star, July 27, 1881. North Carolina. Wilmington.
  6. ^ Virginia (1852). Acts of the General Assembly of Virginia: Passed in 1852, in the Seventy-sixth Year of the Commonwealth. William F. Ritchie, Public Printer.
  7. ^ William L. Owen to John Bennett, 19 May 1865, in Gerald Tate Gilliam, The Southsider, Local History and Genealogy of Southside Virginia. A Unionist in Halifax County, Virginia, Volume XIX (4 Number, 2000), 86
  8. ^ a b c d e Way, Angie. “Former Trustee and Historical Virginia Figure Turns 200 This Year." The Esther Thomas Atkinson Museum of Hampden-Sydney College (Aug 2009):1-2. Print.
  9. ^ History.house.virginia.gov. 2022. House History. [online] Available at: <https://history.house.virginia.gov/members/6762> [Accessed 2 July 2022].
  10. ^ "South of the Dan Driving Tour". www.oldhalifax.com. Retrieved 2023-10-26.
  11. ^ a b Mlkcommission.dls.virginia.gov. 2022. Virginia's Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Commission. [online] Available at: <http://mlkcommission.dls.virginia.gov/lincoln/african_americans.html#Delegates> [Accessed 30 June 2022]
  12. ^ Morrison, Alfred J. (1907). Halifax County Virginia A Handbook. Richmond, Virginia: Everett Waddey Co. p. 92.
  13. ^ Richard L. Hume, "The Membership of the Virginia Constitutional Convention, 1867-1868," The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 86, No. 4 (Oct 1978),480.
  14. ^ Hamilton James Eckenrode, The Political History of Virginia During Reconstruction (Baltimore, 1904), 93.
  15. ^ William L. Owen to Family Member, "Cousin Irv.," 22 April 1868, The Virginia Historical Society Archives.
  16. ^ Virginia. Constitutional Convention (1867-1868). Address of the Conservative Members of the Late State Convention: to the People of Virginia. [Richmond?], 1868.
  17. ^ Virginia. Constitutional Convention (1867-1868). The Debates And Proceedings of the Constitutional Convention of the State of Virginia: Assembled At the City of Richmond, Tuesday, December 3, 1867: Being a Full And Complete Report of the Debates And Proceedings of the Convention, Together With the Reconstruction Acts of Congress And Those Supplementary Thereto, the Order of the Commander of the First Military District Assembling the Convention, And the New Constitution. Richmond: Printed at the office of the New nation, 1868.
  18. ^ The Constitution of Virginia: An Annotated Ed. J. P. Bell Company. 1901.
  19. ^ Archivesweb.vmi.edu. 2022. VMI Archives Historical Rosters: William L. Owen. [online] Available at: <https://archivesweb.vmi.edu/rosters/record.php?ID=12020> [Accessed 30 June 2022].
  20. ^ College, Hampden-Sydney (1908). General catalogue of the officers and students of Hampden-Sidney College, Virginia, 1776-1906. Richmond: Whittet & Shepperson, printers.
  21. ^ "About". Sunnyview Inn & Events. Retrieved 2023-10-26.
  22. ^ Obituary: Hon. William L. Owen, The Evening Visitor, August 6, 1881. North Carolina. Raleigh.
  23. ^ Obituary: Hon. W. L. Owen, The Norfolk Landmark, July 28, 1881. Virginia. Norfolk.
  24. ^ TRIPPOSE. 2022. Owen Memorial Hall | 오웬기념각 : TRIPPOSE. [online] Available at: <https://en.trippose.com/tour/owen-memorial-hall> [Accessed 30 June 2022].

External links[edit]


  1. ^ Bailey-Craddock-Lawson Family Letters, 1837-1915, n.d. Accession 28301. Personal papers collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Va. 23219. http://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaxtf/view?docId=lva/vi00555.xml
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