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Owen B. Owens, farmer, and stock-raiser, Murfreesboro, Ark. This
enterprising and very successful agriculturist owes his nativity to this
county, Thompson Township, born October 14, 1851, and is the eldest of five
children, the result of the union of John S. and Rosanna (Brewer) Owens,
the father a native of Alabama, and the mother of Arkansas. The paternal
grandfather (Edwin Owens) was a native of North Carolina, and was a farmer
by occupation. He emigrated to Arkansas, in about 1835. He settled in
Murfreesboro, and at once erected a hotel, still standing, and opened the
first public house in the place. He also owned a farm in the vicinity. Later
he moved to Texas, and there received his final summons in 1875. The
maternal grandfather, Henry Brewer, was a native of North Carolina, his
birth occurring in 1800, and went with his parents to Tennessee, and thence
to Missouri at an early day. In 1818 the family moved to Arkansas, settled
in Pike County, and there Henry (Brewer) entered, and bought large tracts of
land in the vicinity of Murfreesboro. He was very prominent in the affairs
of the county, and held the offices of sheriff from 1840 to 1842, and
coroner for four years. He was a very generous, warm-hearted man, and had
many close friends. During the Civil War he was very active in assisting the
widows and orphans of the soldiers, and when his death came, in 1876, he was
sincerely mourned by al. He was one of the best know and universally
esteemed man in the county. John S. Owens died in the spring of 1861, in
Texas, where he had assisted in raising a regiment for the Confederate army,
and of which he was elected lieutenant-colonel. He was taken suddenly ill,
and died just as the regiment was preparing to go to the front. He was
prominent in the affairs of Pike County, before going to Texas, and was
elected county clerk, when scarcely twenty-on years of age. The mother died
in 1877. After the death of his father Owen B. Owens, who was then but ten
years of age, returned to Arkansas, and made his home with his grandfather
Brewer until his majority, attended school and managed his mother's farm
until her death. After this he made the old place a home for his younger
brothers. In February, 1877, in partnership with Joe Conway, he started a
store in Murfreesboro, and continued this successfully for seven years. He
is the owner of one-half the old homestead consisting of 360 acres all river
bottom land, and has 150 acres under cultivation. This land is all very
fertile, and on it can be raised large crops. He also owns a fine residence
in town. He was married October 9, 1888 to Miss Katie Perkins, a native of
Louisiana, and the daughter and only child of Joe Perkins. To this union
has been born one child, a daughter, named Marion Harland. Mrs. Owens is a
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and Mr. Owens is a member of the
Masonic fraternity, Pike Lodge No. 91, being at present the secretary of the
same. He is a good citizen, and an outspoken Democratic.
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Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Southern Arkansas, 1890, Pike County,
pages 334-335.
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O.B. Owens Tells Us History
O.B. Owens, a native of Pike county and a resident of Murfreesboro, has
seen each of the four courthouses that Pike county has had since its
organization. He was a very young boy when he saw the first log courthouse,
but he says he can recall it faintly.
He says the first courthouse, one made of logs, was built in 1836. The
records show, he says, that Murfreesboro was made the county seat, "never to
be changed."
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Glenwood Herald, November 16, 1933.
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