The obit of Hudson Owen:
*Source Information: Berwick Independent
BERWICK, PENNSYLVANIA, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1898
HUDSON OWEN Born January 25, 1811 - Died February 8, 1898
GATHERED TO HIS FATHERS.

After an illness of about four weeks, one of Berwick's oldest citizens -Hudson Owen - passed form this life to the life immortal shortly after eight o'clock on Tuesday morning, Feb. 8th. The deceased had borne the cares and vicissitudes of eighty-seven years and when this sickness came upon him he seemed to feel that his end was drawing near. The disease that closed his career might be denominated grip, or heart failure, but it is enough to say that the body had
carried the man to the end of the journey and, worn out in good service, his death was but a natural termination. In the latter part of his illness his breathing was so labored as to make conversation a hardship, though he delighted to have his friends talk to him, and he retained consciousness up to Monday evening. When the end came the transition was as with one who falls asleep after a day of honest toil.

Hudson Owen was born in Orange Co., N.Y., January 25, 1811, a son of William and Nancy (McCord) Owen. The latter, a native of Ireland, died when her son was but three years old. For the first time since he was a young man the subject of this article early last summer went back to his old home and stood beside the grave where eighty-three years before they had laid him mother to rest.

The father was a native of Orange County, N.Y., but of Welsh descent, was a tanner by trade and followed the business during the early part of his life, owning a tannery and property in Middletown, N.Y. In 1819 he sold out and moved to Wyoming County, seven miles below Tunkhannock, where he bought a farm and resided until about three years before his death, when he came to live with his son, Hudson, at Berwick, where he died in 1855.

William Owen served in the war of 1812 as a member of the Light Horse Company. He was a man of prominence in his day. He had a family of four children by his first wife, none of whom is now living; and by his last wife had five sons, two of whom are living: Shubel in Wisconsin and Boyd, in Dodge Centre, Minn.

The paternal grandfather of the late deceased was Jonathan Owen, a Lieutenant in the Revolutionary War, who died in 1814.

Mr. Owen's early school privileges were limited to the usual three months' terms that were in vogue in that day, being in the dead of winter when there was no work on the farm. He has often told the writer how he had to walk two miles and cross the river on the ice to reach school. When he became sixteen he sought employment with the Delaware & Hudson Canal Co., then at work putting in a branch from Port Jervis to Rondout. His first half day was pushing a wheel-barrow, with brawny men accustomed to that labor; but when at noon the contractor came along and saw him he said the boy was too slight for such work, and so took him off and set him to carrying water and grog and doing errands generally. For this service he was to be paid ten dollars a month, and of this he took up only three dollars from April to Christmas. When the contractor paid him he did so at the rate of eleven dollars, instead of ten, because of good, faithful service. When telling of this a few years since Mr. Owen added "I had always been taught at home when I went errands to go and come right back." There is a whole sermon in that one sentence for every young man who wants to do his duty by his employer.

The next year, 1828, he worked on the Juniata Canal, and the year following located at Danville, and assisted building the Pennsylvania Canal, working between Danville and Rupert. During this time he went to a subscription school a few months at Rupert. In 1836 he came to Berwick and took charge as foreman of the division from Beach Haven to the Nanticoke dam, continuing in this relation until 1848, when he took the position of overseer of two hundred men putting in the gravity railroad between Hawley and Pittston. The work consisted of forty-four miles of double track. The next year he took the contract to build that portion of the road that was still nfinished. In 1850 he received the contract to build a railroad between Penn Haven and Hazleton, and the next year returned to his position on the canal, living for a few years on a farm above escopeck, and in 1854 moved to Berwick. In 1855 he contracted to fence the D.L. & W. railroad from Pittston to Rupert. About that time he was interested in a general store, with John McHenry (near of Benton) at what is known as the SW corner. Later he obtained a half, half being owned
by S.B Bowman. M.E. Jackson purchased Mr. Owen's interest in '64 or '65 and the latter built and moved into the residence from which he was buried yesterday. When he moved to Danville he was appointed under a Democratic governor and it was necessary that the canal men should support that ticket, but when a Republican was elected, Mr. Owen was still retained in his position. He began to work for the Company as a laborer, and since 1829 has held nearly all the
offices of the Company.

The subject of this sketch was married in 1837 to Emily Jackson. To them were born seven children, of whom four are living: Harriet, widow of Jerome Wolcott, Philadelphia; Sarah, wife of Jeremiah S. McMurtrie, Philadelphia; Augusta, wife of Abner Welch, Berwick; Helen I., wife of H.D. Albright, Laurelton. Frances, married to Robert W. Gilroy, died March, 1884. Mrs. Owen died in 1855 and in 1856 Mr. Owen married Elizabeth Jackson, a sister of his first wife. Five
children were born to their union, two of whom are living: George and Anne. Kate, married A.E. Shuman, died Feb., 1888; and William H., died October, 1895. Besides these children the deceased is survived by fourteen grandchildren and ten great grandchildren.

In former years Mr. Owen had been affiliated with Free Masonry and with Odd Fellowship; he served his town well at different times as councilman and on the school board. He lived with a firm belief in a risen Savior and died as he lived - a Christian. During the War of the Rebellion though he was not himself subject to the draft, he was active in every move toward getting men to the front and particularly active in assisting the families of the men in the service. As showing how long this patriarch lived it might be noted that he saw his beloved Nation grow from seventeen States, with a population of seven millions, to forty-five States with seventy-five millions of people.

Hudson Owen was a man of vigorous health and mind - a man cast in a heroic mold. His one infirmity, the loss of an eye, was a memento of an act of heroism, in saving two men who were stranded in the ice, on the river, below the falls, away back in the days of his young manhood. By deeds and valor less than this, men win the Victoria Cross. It was his love for man that endeared him to men/ for far and wide, wherever he was known, he was honored and respected.

The funeral was held yesterday afternoon, conducted by Rev. A.H. Smith of the Baptist Church, and Revs. Stephens and Irickson of the Presbyterian Church. Eight grandsons bore the body form the house and lowered it into the grave. The large attendance of townspeople and those from a distance attested well the respect in which he was held. Hudson Owen has passed to his reward; but his good influence will linger and be an uplift to others in years to come.

Una Bowman sent me this:
from History of Columbia and Montour Counties Pennsylvania, Battle, 1887, b. 393

Hudson Owen, superintendent of the Pennsylvania Canal of the Wyoming division, was born in Orange County, NY, January 25, 1811, a son of William and Nancy (McCord) Owen, the latter a native of Ireland.  His father was a native of Orange County, NY, but of Welsh descent.

He [William Owen] was a tanner by trade and followed the business during the early part of his life.  He owned a tannery and property in Middletown, NY.  In  1819 he sold out and moved to Wyoming county, where he bought a farm and resided until about three years before his death, when he went to live with his son, Hudson, at Berwick, where he died in 1855.  His wife died in 1814.

William Owen served in the war of 1812 and belonged to the LIght Horse Company.  He was a life-long democrat and a man  of prominence in his day.  He had a family of four children by his first wife, on one of whom is living, Hudson, and by his last wife, had five sons, three of whom are living: John, in Washington Territory; Shubel in Wisconsin, and Boyd, in Dodge Centre, Minn.

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