Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 08.djvu/177

 OWEN

OWEN

entific and literary periodicals. He died, from the effects of poison taken accidentally, at New Harmony, Ind., March 25, 1890.

OWEN, Robert Dale, reijresentative and author, was born in Glasgow, Scotland, Nov. 7, 1801; son of Robert and Anne Caroline (Dale)

Owen, and grandson of Robert and

(Williams) Owen, and of David Dale, a mill owner and lord provost of Glasgow, Scotland. His father (1771-1858), a prominent British social reformer and the author of many socialistic books, was in America, 1824-27, where he pur- chased 30,000 acres of land in Indiana and Ill- inois, and made an unsuccessful attempt to found a colony, which he named New Harmony. Robert Dale Owen was educated by private tutors and at Emanuel von Fellenberg's school at Hofwyl, Switzerland, 1818-21. He came to the United States in 1824, and aided his father in es- tablishing the colony at New Harmony, Ind., but in 1827, upon the failure of the enterprise, went back to England. Returning to America in the same year he settled in New York, where he published the Free Inquirer, 1828-32, being as- sisted in the undertaking by Fanny W^right, the abolitionist. In 1832 he again went to New Har- mony, Ind. He was a representative in the Indiana legislature, 1835-38, and was influential in securing one half of the appropriation from the surplus U.S. revenue allotted to Indiana for the support of the public schools of that state. He was a Democratic representative from Indiana in the 28th and 29th congresses, 1843-47. W^iile in congress he introduced a resolution relating to the Oregon dispute, which subsequently formed the basis upon which the question was settled in 1846, and a resolution organizing the Smithsonian Institution, He was a member of the constitu- tional convention of Indiana in 1850, chairman of the committee on riglits and privileges, and of the committee on revision. He was again a rep- resentative in the state legislature in 1851; ap- pointed by President Pierce charge d' affaires at Naples in 1853, and U.S. minister in 1855, serving until his return to the United States in 1858. He championed the abolitionist cause, and during the civil war was appointed by Secretary Stanton chairman of a committee to inquire into the con- dition of the freed slaves. The honorary degree of LL.D. was confei'red on him by the Indiana uni- versity in 1872, and he was a trustee of the univer- sity, 1838-46 and 1849-51. He is the author of-. Outline of the System of Education at New Lanark (1824); Moral Physiology (1831); Discussion ivith Origen Bachelor, on the Personality of God and the Authority of the Bible (1832); Pocahontas: a Drama (1837); Hints on Public Architecture (■1849); A Treatise on the Construction of Plank Roads (1850); Footfalls on the Boundary of An-

other World {\S^^); The Wrong of Slavery, the Right of Emancipation, and the Future of the African Race in the United States (1864); Beyond the Breakers (1870); Debatable Land Between this World and the Next {1^12), and Tlireading My Way (1874). He died at Lake George, N.Y., June 17, 1877.

OWEN, Thomas McAdory, historian, was born in Jonesboro, Jefferson count}', Ala., Dec. 15, 1866; son of Dr. William Marmaduke and Nancy (McAdory) Owen; grandson of Judge Thomas and Dolly Payne (Williams) Owen, and great-grandson of Marmaduke (q.v.) and Agnes (Payne) Williams. Agnes Payne was a first cousin of Dorothy Payne, wife of President James Madison. His Owen and Williams ancestors were seated in Henrico and Hanover counties, re- spectively, in Virginia, as early as the beginning of the eighteenth century, and his McAdory ances- tor was a Scotch-Irish immigrant from North Ireland to South Carolina jjrior to the Revolution- ary war. He was graduated from the University of Alabama, A.B. and LL.B., 1887, A.M., 1893, He was admitted to the bar in 1887 and practised in Bessemer, CarroUton and Birmingham, Ala., until March 1, 1901, when he retired from the active practice of law and devoted himself to literary pursuits. He was married, April 12, 1893, to Marie, daughter of the Hon. John H. Bankhead (q-v.). He was elected secretary of the Alabama Historical society, Jnne 21, 1898; secretary of the Sons of the Revolution in Ala- bama, April 16, 1894, and a member of the American Historical association in 1894, He was one of the foundeis of the Southern History as- sociation of Washington, D.C., April 24, 1896; was instrumental in the establishment of the Alabama Department of Arcliives and History, located in the state capitol at Montgomery, Ala., Feb. 27, 1901, and was elected its director, March 2, 1901, and in July, 1902, issued the first number of The Gulf States Historical Magazine, published bi-monthly. He edited the Transactions of the Ala- bama Historical Society (vols. 1 to 4, 1898-1902,) and the Report of the Alabama History Commis- sion (1901). He is the author of a City Code of Bessemer, Alabama (1888); Bibliograpliy of Ala- bama (1897); Bibliography of Mississippi (1900), Annals of Alabama 1819-1900, being an addenda to Vickeifs History of Alabama (1900); seimrate genealogies of the Lester. Strother, Eaton. Stan- sel, Lacoy, Kelly, Fisher and Ross families; a Hist- ory of the Great Seal of Alabama, and a sketch of Ephraim Kirby, the first Superior Court Judge in what is now Alabama.

OWEN, William D., representative, was born in Bloomingtom, Ind., Sept. 6, 1846; son of William D. and Priscilla (Rawlings) Owen; grandson of David and Elizabeth (Dunn) Owen,