S. M. OWENS emigrated
from Montgomery county, Maryland, to Ohio, in 1815, and settled in
Jackson township, about three and a half miles north of Circleville.
He did not become a land owner until some five or six years after
his settlement, when he purchased a small tract of land, which be
improved. He was married in Maryland, to Massy Ann McAtee, and
had two children when he came to Ohio. They were S. M.
Owens and Mary A. Owens. William Owens died
in 1832. His widow survived him, living until 1841.
S. M. Owens was born in Montgomery county,
Maryland, Aug. 21, 1808,a nd came to Ohio with his father and mother
in 1815. His boyhood life was filled with no startling
incident, but he did his share of pioneer work, and suffered the
same privations and hardships that all had to undergo in that early
day. His school education was necessarily very limited, and
was obtained by walking five miles through the wilderness to the
nearest school-house, often frightened by the wild animals that
frequented the forests. As he became old enough to do
the hard work of the pioneer, he labored where he could obtain work
and pay, which was but small in those days.
In 1831 was married in Wayne township, to Miss Eliza
Sullivan, and made his home with his father until his death, in
1832, when he took sole charge of his farm of one hundred and
thirty-seven acres, of which his sister inherited one-half. He
purchased her interest, both himself and wife laboring hard to
improve and add to their little farm in raising grain and stock.
They gradually accumulated property - slowly at first, but surely -
until, at the present time, he has a large landed estate of more
than one thousand acres.
In due time children were born to them, which added to
their cares, as well as their comforts. They had thirteen
children, ten of whom lived to maturity, and all but one of whom
married. Death has thinned their number, but they have loving
remembrance in the grand-children they have left behind them.
On his seventy-first birthday, he had thirty-eight grandchildren,
and tow great-grandchildren, a large number of whom gathered around
him at this anniversary, in August, 1879. Of his children, all
but one- a daughter, who lives in Butler county, Kansas - settled in
Pickaway county. Mrs. Owens died Apr. 6, 1876, at the
age of sixty-eight years. She proved to him a faithful and
loving sharer in all the hardships, cares and trials of life,
administering the affairs of the household, and caring for the
children who were born to them, in such a loving and gentle manner
that they rise and call her memory blessed. She was a
consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and her life
proved to all about her that she lived up to the profession she had
made. Words alone cannot do justice to the memory of this most
estimable, kind and loving wife and mother, and the true and
faithful friend of all with whom she came in contact. |
