Reuben Phillip Owen, Sr.
Submitted by James Bright
Chester County Historian
Reuben was born in McNairy County on Jan. 19, 1868 to George Winchester and Elizabeth Jane Wilson Owen. Reuben married Grace Odelia Sitton on Sept. 11, 1892 in Stoddard County, Mo. She was the daughter of William and Margaret Norman Sitton.
By 1900, Reuben and Grace were farming in District 8 of Chester County. By 1930, they were farming in District 6 of Chester County. On Sept. 2, 1933, Grace died of myocarditis and Nephritis and was buried in Owen Cemetery. Reuben and Grace had designated this two-acre plot for Owen family burials near their home, which is now located at Chickasaw State Park. There was also an Owen School in the area, and some members of the Owen family operated a mill (which had a water whistle on it) on the creek that fills the lake in Chickasaw State Park.
After the passing of his wife, Reuben moved to Clay, Dunklin County, Mo., to live next to his sons William Noel and Reuben, Jr. and his daughter Maggie Palmer. Later, he moves back to Chester County where he dies on Oct. 2, 1958 of pneumonia at the age of 90. At the time of his death, he was living with his son James Fletcher Owen at 471 Crook Avenue in Henderson. He was buried beside Grace in Owen Cemetery.
During his life, Reuben was a farmer, a school teacher, Chester County Tax Assessor and a Freewill Baptist preacher near Leapwood Tennessee. Family members say he was a little man, always meticulous in his grooming, loved people and loved visiting his friends and kinfolk very much. His sermons were of the sweet, encouraging type, and he prayed beautiful prayers full of sweet old-fashioned phrases.
