Timothy and Roderick OWEN, who were among
the first settlers of Marshall county, Illinois, were born in
Wyndham county, Connecticut, in the years 1799 and 1803,
respectively, and were the sons of Amasa and Keziah (DANA) OWEN,
who were also born and reared in that state, their forefathers
having emigrated from the countries of Wales and Scotland,
respectively, in the early part of the eighteenth century. In
1816, Amasa OWEN removed from
They landed at
Welcomes and congratulations over, a short relation of the situation of the newcomers resulted in the fitting up of a couple of ox teams and wagons, and the removal of the newly arrived emigrants to Pleasant Grove, where they made their home most of the summer. The spectacle of the prairies as they then beheld them in their native wildness and beauty was so vast and seemingly illimitable, so new to them, and unlike anything they had ever seen before, as to fill them with awe and admiration, and it was only because of the plans they had formed before emigrating to this new country of building mills, that they were dissuaded from at once entering upon and building their homes in the vicinity of Pleasant Grove in Tazewell county. But as the mill enterprise was a fixed project with them and there being no stream of water in that vicinity suitable for the requirements of that enterprise they reluctantly left it for others to occupy.
This was really in the days of the
beginning of the settlement of this portion of the state, and
the cabins of the settlers were as yet at long distances and
isolated from each other, and on the prairies one might travel
for days without sighting the home of a white settler as it came
to be a well-known fact that the first settlers of the country
uniformly avoided the prairie and pitched their abodes along the
lines of timber, even preferring to go a little back in the
woods, to going any considerable distance out on the prairie,
and it was not until all the lands adjacent to the timbered
parts had been appropriated that the prairies were accepted for
settlement.
In the latter part of the summer of 1832, having found a suitable situation for the building of a mill on the stream called Crow Creek, about thirty miles north of where they were then stopping in Tazewell county, and then in Putnam county, now Marshall county, the OWEN brothers, as soon as they could, made the necessary preparations and moved their families thereto, which was in the fall of that year. The site of these mills was at a point on Crow Creek, where it emerges from the bluffs of the Illinois river into its bottom and about one and a quarter miles from where it empties into that river. There was at that time a few Indian wigwams on the lower portion of Crow Creek bottom and just north of the projected mill site, but their tenants were not of size or physique to excite apprehensions of danger as all of the stronger of the tribe or village were then in the field and contesting their claims to the occupancy of t Illinois territory, which as a result and a matter of history also, they were at about that period compelled to surrender forever and push across the Father of Waters. They were only seen by the settlers of this neighborhood after this in very small and straggling bands on the chase for deer or other game, and the settlers were never molested by them, only when they sometimes came to their cabins, in a spirit of peace and friendliness, begging for some favor, as salt, tobacco, fire-water or ammunition, as there was rarely a gun among them.
The first summer the OWEN family lived at Crow Creek mills, one morning when the men were all away from the house at work, the wife of Timothy OWEN was alone, excepting two small children. She was suddenly startled and surprised by seeing five pretty stalwart looking Indians with bows and arrows hung upon their shoulders at her cabin door, and some of them entering the house. She was terribly frightened but hardly had a chance to think of what was best to do as they were all talking among themselves and gesticulating and making all manner of queer signs. By which they at least succeeded in getting her to understand it was salt they wanted, which was very quickly given them, when they all left, nodding and muttering “good squaw,” and disappeared up the bluff back of the cabin like shadows, very much to her satisfaction and relief.
The first winter spent in Tazewell county by Jedediah OWEN and Samuel HADLOCK was one always remembered and talked about by the old settlers of that period on account of its great severity and the depth of its snows. Commencing early in November the snow storms came frequently, and some of them drifting until in December it had reached a depth of about five feet on the level, and the drifts about the groves of timber which were quite numerous in Tazewell county, it had piled up in great hills. It constituted almost an absolute barrier to travel of any ordinary kind and thus threatened the few inhabitants, who were at that day very scattering, with starvation. A few of the settlers had raised some patches of corn, but nearly all of that was still ungathered and now covered by snow, the tops of the stalks only to be seen, so that in many instances they were compelled in order to save themselves and their live stock from starvation to “dig” their corn from day to day for several weeks and great was the suffering of both people and dumb brutes, a great many of the latter dying for want of shelter, food and water. Roads were actually shoveled and in some instances for miles, in order to reach water for the stock. Whole herds of cattle and swine were surrounded by drifts and perished. Every stratagem and contrivance was brought into requisition by the settlers who counciled and worked together for their common welfare. There was a little corn mill in the town of Tremont run by horse power where the inhabitants could get corn meal, but only in peck rations during the deep snow, but to get there they were compelled to shovel roads or go upon snow shoes, which had to be made, and in a good many instances narrow escapes from starvation were noted. Deer, then in herds in that locality, huddled together in groves and thickets where they were imprisoned by the drifts and perished in large numbers, their bones being found the following spring. Mr. HADLOCK was once one of a party of three who made an excavation through the drift into a thicket, where by chance they happened to know some deer were imprisoned, and where they found a dozen which they easily captured and killed.
While the OWEN brothers were living at Crow
Creek mills, a very common way of their going to
The country was sparsely settled in the
vicinity of the Crow Creek mills, or in fact in the whole
territory now embraced in Woodford and Marshall counties as
early as 1832, as became manifest by the opportunity afforded
them by the mill, of being well posted upon this point, and also
of making the acquaintance of nearly every settler within that
region, or within forty miles of them in any direction. The site
of the mills was a little short of a standing camping ground for
several years, as its distant patrons and customers were
generally compelled to stay over and “camp it” before they could
return home with their grists. Many and diversified were the
experiences of privations and dangers encountered by the early
pioneers of our country which the citizens of to-day can feebly
comprehend or appreciate. At present, where we find every
available acre of land along the
During the summer of 1833, the OWEN
brothers completed their mills, both a flouring and saw mill,
utilizing the same power for both. The flouring mill, to be
sure, belonged to the primitive order and was of course a very
diminutive concern as compared with the mills of our country at
the present day, but it was nevertheless a mill, and a large one
too, as compared with the mortar and pestle, which were still in
common use among the early settlers, and in its capacity of
supplying a great and much felt need of the times, as it did,
and was warmly welcomed and greatly appreciated by the
inhabitants, who came from far and near to get their flour and
meal, as it was the only mill within a radius of thirty or forty
miles. But this was only the beginning and what was afterward
called the first edition of the Crow Creek mill, as three or
four years afterward they were compelled, in order to supply the
demands of the times, to enlarge and improve, doubling its
former capacity. In the rebuilding of the mill they engaged the
services of Joseph SAVAGE, a Frenchman, who had just arrived
from France, and a miller by profession and experience. After
being refitted up, the mill was kept running almost constantly
for several years and received the grateful patronage of a wide
radius of country. The saw mill was also crowded with work
continually, there being a great demand for lumber in those
days, and a saw mill was by no means a common thing. Some of the
lumber sawed at this mill went to
After having spent two years at the mills,
an epoch in their lives always afterward referred to as having
been fraught with experiences of hazard and danger to life, the
OWEN brothers determined for various reasons, one being on
account of the unhealthfulness of the place, to move from there
with their families, which they did in the year 1835. Timothy
went to a tract of land which he had entered previously on the
southwestern edge of what was known as Round Prairie in Richland
township, about seven miles distant from the Crow Creek mills,
where he resided until the time of his death, which occurred May
3, 1886. Roderick removed to the town of
The brothers were both men of that versatile genius and skill which was not to be confined to any particular trade or branch of mechanical art, but could adapt itself to the needs and demands of the times and it is only feeble justice to them to say they filled places, connected with the welfare of the people at those times, not to have easily been substituted. Many were the calls made upon them, upon their prompt execution depending the weal or woe of the party or parties interested and it was a pride and satisfaction to them in after years that they rarely failed in their undertakings. Anything from the construction of a bucket or barrel to a burial casket, or from a sled or cart to a complete brand new wagon, from the tree every part and parcel made by their own hands, was in the line of their common every-day experience. The mills, still owned by them, were by no means idle or neglected, but were leased to professional millers and kept going at their fullest capacity. In 1853, the flouring mill was again enlarged and doubled in capacity, and making it in every respect a modern and reputable mill of its day and age, and was then known and denominated as the third edition of the OWEN mill. From that time on it enjoyed a large patronage. But though it flourished for a while its career was destined to be a short one, as in the month of June, 1856, it became the victim of the incendiary’s spite, and was reduced to ashes, making a total loss to its owners as it was without insurance.
Timothy OWEN was identified in some capacity with a good many of he early public improvements of the town and county in which he resided. As a commissioner of highways he assisted in the survey and improvement of a good many of the first roads of the county, and to do which he was often compelled to go quite long distances from his home several days at a time, and of such trips he could relate many adventures and experiences, such as exposure to hunger and thirst, long journeys on horse back, sometimes having an exciting chase after a deer or wolf, getting lost or bewildered in finding his way home across the prairies after night, etc. As a trustee of schools, in which capacity he served for over twenty years, he assisted in the organization and starting of some of the first schools of Richland township, and for years his services were considered quite indispensable to the board, as he was among the few of those times who were competent to pass upon the qualifications of the teacher, that duty then devolving upon the board of trustees.
Roderick OWEN had already made a reputation
as being an adept workman in steel, which made him very popular
as a blacksmith. As a single instance of many showing his
proficiency and his impromptu manner of disposing of difficult
and unexpected jobs, we give the following, which was often
related by the brothers and also by others who were conversant
with it and who commented on it many years afterward from the
fact that it was universally thought to have been impracticable:
While they were at the Crow Creek mills and were crowded with
sawing, as most everybody needed lumber, Timothy on starting the
mill very early one cold, frosty morning, was very much taken
back at seeing the saw, a large steel blade, fall broken in
three pieces. This looked like a disastrous affair for them, as
another saw could not be had short of
Shortly after the time of Roderick OWEN’s
removal to Lacon, the problem of the evolution of the plow began
to engage and agitate the minds and muscles of at least two
classes, the farmer and the architects in iron and steel, and
was, as a matter of fact, one of the very foremost in its
importance. The farmers had become thoroughly convinced that the
thing heretofore known as the plow, was, when brought in contact
with the rich, black and adhesive soil of the flat prairies of
Illinois, simply a large and total failure, so much so in fact,
that it became proverbial, that a man could find where he plowed
the day before by setting stakes or land marks. It was plainly
the fact that something original in design and peculiar in
construction in the way of a plow must be devised to the end
that the pursuit of agriculture might be made even tolerable or
in any degree lucrative on the fertile prairies of
Roderick OWEN was not only a man of and for
the times in which he lived in the sense already indicated, but
was alive to the interests and reforms of his day. With a
logical and comprehensive mind, he surveyed the whole political
horoscope with a vision which made many of his utterances to
become verified by history. He was a most inveterate hater of
the institution of slavery and never lost an opportunity to give
it a thrust. It was perhaps on account of his well known radical
views upon that question along in the 50’s, that he gained the
acquaintance and became the warm and intimate friend of Owen
LOVEJOY, who then lived at Princeton, Illinois, and whose
opinion of him might be obtained form the following incident.
Being in Lacon for the purpose of addressing the people on
political affairs and meeting and being introduced to Timothy
OWEN, Mr. LOVEJOY remarked on the personal resemblance to
Roderick OWEN, of Bureau county. On being told that he was a
brother, he replied with emphasis: “I know Roderick OWEN well
and, sir, you are honored. He would fill any position in the
gift of the people of the state of
In Scioto county,
Amasa and Keziah OWEN, father and mother of
the subject of this sketch, who emigrated to
Jedediah OWEN, their brother, who came to
Samuel HADLOCK, before spoken of, also removed from Tazewell county to Marshall county in 1832, and settled upon and improved a large farm on the Illinois river bottom, nine miles below Lacon, where he enjoyed thrift and prosperity until 1860, when he sold his farms and removed to Polk county, Missouri, where he invested quite extensively in lands, and resided until his death, in 1886, surviving his wife, Eliza OWEN HADLOCK, nearly three years. They reared a family of eight children to the age of maturity, but only three are living at the present time.
Of the three sisters who came from
Emeline OWEN was also married the first
year after coming to Illinois to Frazier SEWARD, who was a
farmer and stock raiser by occupation, living upon a splendid
farm on the lower Crow creek bottom, where he pursued that
calling very prosperously for a few years. When in the prime of
life he died, leaving a wife and three children. The former
afterward became the wife of James SEWARD, a step-brother of her
first husband, by whom she had two sons, and with whom she lived
the remainder of her life, dying in March, 1850. Three of her
children live at the writing – Jefferson, of Pike county,
Lucy, the youngest sister, was married in
1833, at Crow Creek Mills, to Carver GUNN, who came from
William OWEN, an elder brother, drifted
into Pennsylvania just prior to their emigration to Illinois,
locating in Crawford county, where he built himself a
comfortable home, and there married and reared a family of five
children, all of whom are yet living in the western states. He
died at his home in
In religion, Timothy and Roderick OWEN both became adherents of the Methodist creed in early life, continuing their membership with that church until death. In the latter part of their lives, however, they both became quite passive and liberal in their religious views, with marked falling off tendencies of belief in the infallibility of the Christian dogmas of the past. To do good and to promote the betterment of the condition of their fellow men was the principal code or creed of their religion, and always relied implicitly upon the virtue of the philosophical maxim, “ As ye would that other do unto you, do ye likewise unto them.” They were both lovers of nature, demonstration, music and art, and were always attracted and absorbed by the disclosures and inventions of science. They were always known and regarded as religious men because of the orderly and exemplary conduct of their lives.
Extracted May 2011 by Norma Hass from The Biographical Record of Bureau, Marshall and Putnam Counties, Illinois, 1896.
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