Levi OWENS, b. 1830, Humphreys County, Tennessee, is the great great grandfather of the OWENS family that first settled in Massac County, Illinois, during the Civil War.  There were several Owens families in Humphreys County, Tennessee, during the early 1800's related to Samuel and Belitha OWENS, brothers who came to middle Tennessee.  I believe Levi is the son or possibly grandson of Belitha OWENS and Mary ENNIS.

  Levi married Martha J. MCMACKIN, b. 1830, in Tennessee, about 1848, and in 1849 Sarah OWENS was born, followed in 1855 by James J. OWENS, Samuel Thomas OWENS, b. 1858, and finally, Blitha L. OWENS, b. 1863, all in Humphreys County Tennessee.  Sometime after Blitha's birth, Levi and Martha moved their family from Tennessee up into southern Illinois, around Massac County, just across the Ohio River from Paducah, Kentucky.  By 1870, Sarah was married, and Levi and Martha were farming land near Unionville, Illinois, not far from the Pope County line.  By 1880, James and Samuel Thomas had both married and started their families, and in 1882, Blitha L. OWENS, also called Blithey, married Mary Jane WETHERINGTON, daughter of William Henry and Susan P. ALLCOCK WETHERINGTON.

  In 1883 Ernest OWENS was born to Blithey and Mary Jane, followed in 1885 by Earl Ray OWENS, and then in 1890, a daughter, Artie Gertrude OWENS, was born.  At the young age of 29, Blithey died of what is believed to be tuberculosis in 1892, leaving Mary Jane a widow with 3 young children.  Mary Jane then married Dr. Isaac P. LAGORE, who also had one daughter, Riffie LAGORE and together they had 3 more daughters, Clytie, Anna, and Lovie, as well as a son, Enoch LAGORE.

  The families of James J. OWENS, Samuel Thomas OWENS, and Blithey OWENS all lived in close proximity to the family of their sister, Sarah OWENS DEAN, as well as their mother, Martha J. OWENS, who is listed as widowed in the 1900 Census record.  Levi died sometime after 1882 and before 1900.

In January of 1914, Earl R. OWENS married Bessie CALDWELL, b. 1889, daughter of William Augustus CALDWELL and Emma Randa GOLDEN of New Liberty, Pope County, Illinois.  By 1915, a daughter, Vera Mary OWENS, was born, and the following year on October 10, 1916, Ethar Raymon OWENS was born near Hamletsburg, Illinois.  When Ethar was "just a babe in arms", according to Grandma OWENS' account, they loaded their belongings and their 3 children, Hester Mae, Vera, and Ethar, onto a flatboat on the Ohio River and traveled down the Mississippi River as far as Portageville, Missouri.  From there they moved over into Dunklin County, Missouri, around Holcomb, and began share-cropping the 200-acre Tatum truck farm.  Here their last 2 children were born, Richard Lee OWENS in 1919, and Joseph Blytha (known as J.B.) OWENS in 1922.

This site's content by Regina Owens Rice with page editing by Joe Neal Neftzger,

both great grand children of Mary Jane Wetherington.

Dad In The Garden - 1973

Blitha L. Owens

Earl R. Owens

Updated On: July 31, 2011