My Genealogy Hound

Horace Pestalozzi Owen, president of the New Harmony Banking Company, and one of the active financiers of Posey county, is the only male representative of the Owen family now living in New Harmony. He is a son of Col. Richard Owen, esteemed mention of whom is made elsewhere in this volume. Horace Owen was born in New Harmony, November 2, 1842, received his education in private schools and the Western Military Institute at Blue Lick Springs, Ky., an institution owned by his father and Gen. Bushnell Johnson, which later became the University of Nashville. About this time the sectional feeling that preceded the Civil war was growing more and more bitter, and on this account his father came north. Colonel Owen was State geologist at the time and Horace accompanied him in his work in that connection, and assisted him for the next two years. Then the great Civil war came on and in the fall of 1861 he enlisted in Company F, Sixteen Indiana infantry, and was commissioned first lieutenant. Afterwards he was adjutant of the regiment and later served as adjutant of the First brigade, Tenth division, Thirteenth army corps, Army of the Mississippi. He was at Chickasaw Bayou, Arkansas Post, Jackson and the siege of Vicksburg. Mr. Owen saw much hard fighting and fortunately escaped serious injury. His narrowest escape was at Arkansas Post, where he was rendered unconscious by the explosion of a shell. In 1863 Mr. Owen resigned his commission to return home and care for his mother, while his father remained in the army. After he returned to New Harmony he turned his attention to the business world, and in a short time engaged in the hardware and implement business with Victor C. Duclos as a partner. He continued in this business two or three years, when he engaged in the dry goods business until 1872, when he went to Terre Haute, where he engaged in the grain business for two years. In 1874 he returned to New Harmony and again entered the hardware and implement business with his brother, E. F. Owen. They sold the first binder south of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad in Indiana. He became cashier of the New Harmony Banking Company at the organization of that institution, and in 1879 became its president, in which position he still serves. Mr. Owen is of the banker’s temperment, safe, sane and conservative, always bearing in mind how he can give the best service to his patrons, and at the same time serve the best interests of his institution. Horace Owen is a man of genial disposition, who makes friends and keeps them. He is naturally of a generous nature and kind hearted. He takes a deep interest in the progress and welfare of his town and county. For twenty-five years he has been president of the school board, and has served as president of the Working Man’s Institute for ten years. He is also president of the New Harmony 1914 Centennial Commission. He has always been an active Republican, but has never aspired to hold office. Mr. Owen was united in marriage May 8, 1867, to Miss Natalie Burroughs Mann, who is also a native of New Harmony. She belongs to a highly respected family, being the daughter of Dr. Josiah Stockton Mann, who came west from the Genesee Valley, New York, at an early day. Mrs. Owen is prominent in the social world and possesses the true nobility of American womanhood. To Mr. and Mrs. Owen have been born three children: Nora Edgeworth, married Arthur DeBois Armstrong, Memphis, Tenn.; Aline Dale, married Dr. Benjamin F. Neal, New Harmony, and Richard Dale, a successful real estate dealer of Los Angeles, Cal. Mr. Owen is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, and the Grand Army of the Republic, of which he is past commander. The family are communicants of the Episcopal church, of which he has been senior warden twenty-five years.