Captain Was Always Faithful To His Relative

Capt. Joseph W. Owen, born Feb. 27, 1835, was long a well-known and highly respected citizen of Bristol.
He was well connected, being a close relative of the Rev. James King and Col. Samuel E. Goodson. His mother died when he was a child.
Her dying request to her cousin, Col. Goodson, was that he take and raise her children. He did take them, Joseph W. Owen, James G. Owen and a sister, Martha Jane Owen.
A baby girl in this family, Margaret King Owen, was dropped by her nurse and died of the injuries before the death of the mother.
With the aid of a slave nurse and a cook, Goodson brought these children to adulthood in wealth and good health.
When Capt. Owen was about 20, he went to old Mexico with the intention of settling there. He engaged in the business of buying horses and mules at very cheap prices then selling them to early settlers in Texas for a handsome profit. In this, he was doing very well.
However, Col. Goodson persuaded him to come back to this area to aid him in his several business pursuits. He arrived back here in February 1857.
Later that month, he assisted in the first burial that became the East Hill Cemetery.
It was on his word that we establish the date of this very historic burial ground. 
According to his daughters, it was Capt. Owen who persuaded the noted Col. John S. Mosby to settle in Bristol. He was a distant cousin to Mosby.
Mosby was on his way to Memphis to open a law practice there, but he stopped to visit these relatives and was persuaded to stay put in Bristol. Some say that another strong incentive was that he was running out of money.
During the Civil War, Joseph Owen served with Col. Mosby and his Raiders. He distinguished himself in several engagements of that group. He was highly valued as a close advisor to Col. Mosby.
On Dec. 7, 1864, while on a furlough here, Owen married Alice Margaret King, a daughter of Cyrus King and granddaughter of the noted Rev. James King.
The ceremony had barely ended when Capt. Owen had to flee out the back door to escape an approaching group of Federals. He did not see his bride again for more than a month.
A son of this marriage was Samuel G. Owen who settled in Birmingham, Ala. He was twice married but left no descendents.
Capt. Owen’s first wife died Aug. 14, 1887. He soon married her first cousin Melinda (Linnie) King, daughter of John G. and Harriet Netherland King.
Doubtless, several of my readers will remember his two lovely daughters, Hattie and Reveley Owen, who lived at 237 Solar St.
At the death of Col. Samuel Goodson, Jan. 31, 1870, Capt. Owen inherited the larger part of his estate, and thus became one of the richest men in Bristol.
His cousin, the noted Col. John S. Mosby, was never much liked in Bristol. After the war, when he became associated with U.S. Grant, he then became the brunt of severe dislike and criticism here.
This greatly troubled Capt. Owen who was always on the defensive for his cousin.
During the height of that furor, he had an image of Mosby carved in marble. This, he attached to the side of a bank building that stood on the northeast corner of Lee and Main (State) streets.
It remained there for years, then was taken down when that building was demolished (around 1900). It remained in Bristol until a few years ago. 
For several years, Capt. Owen and his family lived at 611 Locust St.
While living there, his neighbor, John H. Caldwell, began extensive remodeling of the old David Ensor house into the grand mansion that now is the present Weaver Funeral Home.
On May 13, 1907, Capt. Owen and his two young daughters were standing in the street as the front columns of that grand mansion were being put into place.
His daughter, Hattie, remembered when the first column (the one on the east side) was being put into place, her father suddenly fell dead at her feet.
He is buried in the Cyrus King lot in our historic East Hill Cemetery.

BUD PHILLIPS is a local historian and author. He can be reached at (276) 466-6435.