My Genealogy Hound

JOHN D. OWEN, M. D., is a son of John Owen and Mary A. (Goodwin) and was born in Smith County, Tenn., June 21, 1825. The father was of Welsh descent, and his ancestors first located in Maryland and Virginia. He was born in North Carolina in 1787, and was a physician and surgeon by profession. He married and came to Tennessee in 1812, locating in Smith County, where he practiced medicine. He and his wife organized and established the first Sabbath-school ever taught in Smith County. He died September 5, 1826. He was a stockholder and president of a branch of the old Bank of Tennessee at Carthage, and was a member of the town board for several years. The mother was born in 1787 in North Carolina. She was a devout church-member, and a life member of the American Bible Society. She died at our subject’s home, in Lebanon, January 2, 1879. John D. was educated in the Cumberland University, of Lebanon, and the Nashville University. At the age of twenty he began the study of medicine under the direction of his brother, Dr. B. R. Owen, and in the fall of 1846 went to Philadelphia, Penn., and entered the same institution from which his father graduated. He graduated in 1848. He has always practiced in Smith County, and has met with well-deserved success. In 1853 he moved to Lebanon, and November 1, of the same year, married Fannie Jamison, daughter of J. and A. (Porter) Jamison. Mrs. Owen was born April 9, 1835. Dr. Owen and another gentleman established a drug store in Lebanon, but was soon compelled to abandon the business owing to ill health. In 1870 he was the prime mover and stock holder of the Bank of Wilson County, and was made its president, continuing such after it became the Second National Bank. He resigned in 1882, and has since lived a retired life. He has in his possession a copy of the old stamp paper which was issued by the British Government in 1765, compelling the colonies to use stamped paper, it being the only original copy on record; its value is 5 shillings. The Doctor is an enterprising man of Lebanon. His wife died January 6, 1886. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, as were all the Owen family of his branch.