John Steward Owens
1880 - 1947 (66 years)
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Name John Steward Owens Birth 10 May 1880 Lee, Virginia, United States 
- Source is death certificate of John Steward Owens
Gender Male Death 9 Jan 1947 Coalfield, Morgan, Tennessee, United States Burial Estes Cemetery, Coalfield, Morgan, Tennessee, United States 
Siblings4 Siblings Person ID I6387 Main Tree Last Modified 3 Sep 2022
Father Charles Lyde Owens, Sr., b. 4 Feb 1861 d. 22 Dec 1890, Lee, Virginia, United States (Age 29 years) Mother Nancy Elizabeth Van Huss, b. 1859, Rose Hill, Lee, Virginia, United States d. Tennessee, United States Marriage 25 Oct 1876 Lee, Virginia, United States - Source of this information is Mrs. Dortha Owens Byrde and daughter Barbara Byrd Cannon.
Family ID F2424 Group Sheet | Family Chart
Family Margaret Myrtle Long, b. 19 May 1892 d. 23 Jan 1981 (Age 88 years) Children 1. Dorotha Jane Owens, b. 18 Jul 1925, Waterville, Marshall, Kansas, United States Last Modified 24 Jun 2009 Family ID F2717 Group Sheet | Family Chart
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Event Map 
Birth - 10 May 1880 - Lee, Virginia, United States 
Death - 9 Jan 1947 - Coalfield, Morgan, Tennessee, United States 
Burial - - Estes Cemetery, Coalfield, Morgan, Tennessee, United States = Link to Google Earth
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Notes - Source: Dortha Owens Byrd, 2013 memoirs. No other sources cited.
The True Story of How John Steward?s Dad died.
There was an old shed where they stored winter wood. Dad [John Steward Owens] and his dad[Charley Lyde Owens] were cutting wood. Dad was 10; according to records he was born in 1880 and the record says Granddad was killed 1890.
A man Dad knew rode up on a horse of some kind (he later moved to East Tennessee) and shot Granddad as he and dad were cutting wood. Dad refused to even tell Mom who the man was but that day he got a belt and Granddad?s 45 [pistol ]put around his waist and made a vow to kill the man that killed his Dad. The court took a lot of the stuff to pay off a loan and pay for funeral.
Grandmother took what was left. She took a canvas, melted paraffin, and put on the canvas. She helped Dad and Uncle Lil, Dad 10 and Uncle Lil 8 and Alex 6 to fix the covered wagon and I am sure they had other help. But Dad said his mother showed them how to tie the staves together to make a frame. He never mentioned anyone else coming with them. The cow had a bell (he never said if there was more than cow) they made crates around the wagons out of chicken wire the kids gathered drried grass for nests, tied a container with water in each crate the hens laid on the trip. They only spent 1 night camped out. It rained. Dad slept on I?ve forgotten the name of the wood connecting the front and back wheels, but Uncle Lil anand Uncle Al slept outside covered with a homey quilt. It was a hard rain they fixed Granny and Aunt Molly a bed to sleep in wagon the boys would have gotten in there and slept sitting up not room to lay down. They brought all they could get iin the wagon, tied the pigs together back legs how many??? Where knew they stayed Granny gave the people the eggs and what milk after she fed pigs and chickens. Dad called their bread flip jacks friend biscuit dough fried meat and eggs when theey spent night on road. Dad always lied about his age. He didn?t go to school went to work at ore mines. He told them he was 16 he was tall and skinny the first thing he bought after working for himself was a flash light and when he worked where the carbide light wouldn?t burn because of gas he had the flashlight tied to his cloth hat and worked when others wouldn?t. He stayed there until uncle Lil started to work then he byt [sic] started hoboing said he almost got caught once stealing a chicken there were several men at the camp and no food they would get that whatever they could out of farmers? fields, especially corn.
Dad worked at lots of jobs. He learned to be a jeweler working to repair jewelry watches and clocks we found words by census and names of others with him working in different places. He was a charter member of what became the miner?s union. His pay was bullets for his gun. When he moved here he tried to locate the man [who killed his dad] but couldn?t find anyone who [sic]he looked through names I think. I took gun from under his pillow .when he died. From the look in his eyes, he got forgiveness before he died at our place in January 1947, the day before he died. He was able to walk to the toilet for the first time in ages and rock Buster to sleep.
Lonnie East and Nancy Owens, Dixie, were some that sat up at night when he was so sick. Uncle Lil refused to come when we got F.T. Ruffner to borrow a car and go get Uncle Lil to pray with Dad. Uncle Lil said he?d do it some other time. Dad died less than 1 hour later.
Dad walked to see Uncle Lil frequently. He?d sit down at the side of the road to rest several times. But he made it. Once Uncle Dennie [McGlothin] gave him a tiny pup to bring to Barbara. She was about 6 or 8 months or more. She kept it for years.
- Source: Dortha Owens Byrd, 2013 memoirs. No other sources cited.