ISAAC N. OWEN,

born 1803 in South Carolina, came to Moulton in August, 1821, when quite a young man.  At first he was a clerk for James Elliott; but afterward went into business on his own account.   He was of fine judgment nad unswerving integrity; and won the esteem and confidence of the people in a remarkable degree.  His manner was dignified and somewhat reserved; except in company with his intimate friends.  In person he was tall, fully six feet and spare, but broad across the shoulders.   His eye was dark and his complexion sallow.  In a few years he found himself in a condition to marry, and won

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      * NOTE:  These four children were: Jane Owen (born Darlington District, S. C., 1798; died 1848) married (1822)  In Jefferson county, Ala., Percival Pickens Halbert.  Their son is Prof. Henry Sale Halbert, Crawford, Miss., author and Indianologist.
     Wm. Owen (born 1800, died 1841) unmarried
     Nancy Boyd Owen (born 1805) married (first 1823, in Jefferson county, Ala., Thompson Brown; and (second) Rev. Henry Wortham Sale.  Her son is Henry T. Sale, lawyer, Denver, Col.
     Louisa Owen (born 1818) married (1840) Dr. B. H. Ligon, and died 1844.
     The descendants of Caleb Owen have, as a rule, been church members and of pious dispositions.  Eight grandsons and one great-grandson served in the Civil War, 1861. - (Thomas M. Owen.)

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the hand of Miss Martha Craddock, 1829 - a very small, beautiful, and well educated daughter of Pleasant Craddock.  He kept one of the best hotels in Nashville for a long time, and his children had the advantage of the best schools, and his daughters were highly accomplished.  James B. Wallace, Esq., having married the eldest daughter, Caroline, in Nashville, and settled in Moulton, Mr. Craddock sold his property in Nashville, purchased a farm east of Moulton, and moved his family also.  Mrs. Craddock who was an excellent lady, suffered the most excruciating tortures from rheumatism, for many years before her death.  Not long afterward her husband followed her, and I think none of the family are now living, except Mrs. Owen, and my old Tennessee schoolmate, John Craddock (1880).
     Colonel Owen, during his long career as merchant, had his troubles, but they never diminished the confidence of the people; and he was able, at all times, to support his family in comfort, and have his children well educated.  He had no taste for public life, although he was a decided Whig in his opinions; but in 1834 a nomination for the Legislature was thrust upon him, and he was elected by a large majority.  He was a member of the Baptist Church, and one of its pillars; but had no bitter sectarian feelings toward other denominations.  In short, he was a man of liberal and enlarged views.  He had moved with his son-in-law, Mr. Harris, to Nashville, and his sudden death this spring, 1880, has deeply affected this community.  A good man has fallen, who has been influential in his church, has reared his family well, and was dear to his friends, some of whom have known him "through sunshine and storm," for more than half a century.
     He left children as follows: (1) Mary, who married Thomas C. Sale (son of Rev. Alex. Sale).  He died about 1852.  His daughter Anna was married to John Phelan, Esq., who, after living at Court! and for some years, removed to Chattanooga, and Mrs. Sale went with them.  Later they removed to Birmingham, where Captain Phelan died; his wife and five children survive him.  (2) William Franklin, went to Pine Bluff, Ark., and commenced the practice of law in company with two young men from our county - Simpson Harris and William Galloway.  The firm became prominent and was doing a good business when the late war broke out.  Mr. Owen became captain, and in the course of things was taken prisoner, and was confined for two years at John son's Island.  He died a year or two after his return home.  (3) Martha, who married Captain Isaac M. Jackson.  They lived on Cotaco river, in Morgan county.  (4) Louisa Ligon, who married Mr. Daniel Johnson of Mississippi.  (5) Harriet Perkins, the youngest, who married Andrew J. Harris, long a merchant of Moulton, and now of Nashville.  We will notice him again in connection with the family of his father, Wm. Harris.
     Allen G. Owen was the second son of Caleb, and was born in South Carolina, 6th September, 1808.  He came to Moulton February, 1829; but in 1839 moved away, and returned from Texas in 1850.  He married, 1853, at Courtland a young widow, Mrs. Martha Alman, daughter of Michael Mayes, Esq.  Major Owen (like his brother Isaac) is a member of the Baptist Church, and is a gentleman of singular amiability and courtesy, and much respected by all who know him.  He was a merchant, for many years, in Moulton, and since 1875 has been the clerk of the Chancery Court.  He has three children, Nannie, who married W. H. Hicks, of Henderson, Ky.; Frank C., who conducts a mercantile depot for General Wheeler, and Patty, an accomplished daughter, unmarried.  He died in 1882.
     The third son of Caleb Owen was Frank Caleb Owen, born, 1817, in Madison county; was merchant for many years in Moulton, and had a high character for integrity.  He married, 1850, Lucy, a daughter of Col. Benj. Harris, of Russell's Valley, who was one of its first settlers there.  He surveyed and speculated in lands a great deal.  He and the Gilchrists of our county were great friends, and were partners at land sales.  Colonel Harris became quite wealthy.  He was the brother of Nehemiah Harris of our county.  Mr. Frank Owen was greatly respected by all who knew him.  Died in Moulton, 1857.  His only son, Benjamin L., married Miss Watson, the daughter of a planter in Easter

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Mississippi, and lived a few miles southwest of Moulton.  He finally removed to Columbus, Miss.
     Mr. Edmond Pierce Anderson (born 1800), another merchant, was reared in Cumberland county, Virginia.  He married Adelaide Dechaud, of Abingdon, Va., and moved to Moulton in 1823.  Their oldest son, James M., was born 30th July, 1824.  After a few years, this family moved to Winchester, Term., where Mr. Anderson died at the early age of twenty-seven, leaving his widow with two sons - the one we have mentioned and Edmond P. Jr.  Col. James M. first settled at Rusk, Cherokee county, Texas, where he practised law until 1866, when he went to the flourishing city of Waco.  His attention, I am informed, has been almost exclusively devoted to his profession, eschewing politics and office; never having departed from this rule but twice - he was in the secession convention of 1860 and the Legislature of 1873.  He has the reputation of being one of the foremost lawyers of the State and an able legislator.  He was the law partner of Senator Coke when he was elected Governor of Texas.  The colonel came in 1850 to see the place of his nativity, from which I infer that he is a man of sentiment.  We hope he will come again.  If he should, we will confer on him the "the freedom of the city," and give him a welcome, as a son of Lawrence, suitable to his merits.
     David and Ambrose Hunter, and James M. Minnis - all merchants - came from the same section of East Tennessee.  David and Ambrose did business as partners, for some years, and made independent livings.  David, the elder brother, was rather under the average height, but strongly built.  He married Maria, daughter of Capt. Wm. Leetch, but she died a few years after, without issue.  David was a man of fine business capacity.  In addition to his merchandise, he turned a penny by horse trading.  I might have for gotten this, but for an accident which happened to me when I lived at Moulton.  I purchased from David a match of horses.  Some little time afterward, one Sunday morning, my boy, who had been copper colored the day before, came in nearly as white as a sheet.  "What's the matter, Billy!"  He answered: "Why, sir, Wash and me was having a little race to see which horse was the swiftest, when my horse frowed me clean over a stump - and I lit on my hip upon a root - and I'm most ded, sir." Says I, " Go and lie down, and get your mammy to rub it with eaniphor." But Billy still lingered, and at length said : "And the horse, he's ded too, sir."  "The , you say T" "Yes, sir, he stump his toe, and fell wid his hed gin the stump, and broke his neck smack off."  And so it was.  1 never complained of David, for he didn't guarantee that the horses' head was harder than a seasoned stump.  David married for his second wife a widow named Green, and from that time commenced moving about - and it was said that he moved so often that he wore oat the tenons of his bedsteads.
     Ambrose Hunter was a tall, well proportioned man, and a good merchant and citizen.  His circumstances had improved very much since he came to this country, and he naturally felt it; but he could not get clear of the East Tennessee drawl in his pronunciation.  His friend Minnis had the same infirmity; but was much the sharper man of the two, and always delighted to have a joke on his friends.  He said that "Ambrose one night was attacked with a pain in the top of his head and running down into his brain.  He made out to stand it until daylight, when Dr. Glover was sent for in great haste.  The doctor removed a scratch, which Ambrose wore on the top of his head, secured by small slips of cloth, pasted to his head, when lo! a large cockroach made his escape.   He had been feeding on the paste, and by way of variety, taking a mouthful of the flesh - and this was the sum of his brain fever."  I never could tell how much of this story was true; for whenever it was alluded to in my presence, Minnis got so merry, and Ambrose so mad, that a full explanation never took place.  Ambrose Hunter married Margaret Grugett, and, after her death, a lady who had an interest in the salt works in West Virginia, and I think he moved there.  Minnis married also a daughter of Mrs. Grugett, a worthy woman, who should receive more special notice.
     Maj. John Grugett had been the contractor for the erection of the public buildings, and after completing them built one of the largest log hotels I ever saw.  It was two stories high, had four rooms on each floor and wide halls.  It stood on the side of

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the street leading south from the southwest corner of the square.  When the major died his widow had nothing but his house, and decided to keep a hotel.  She was well patronized, especially by the lawyers from other counties.  Here, in olden time, could be seen the first Clay, with his eagle eye, and McKinley with his pewter eye, but so full of metaphysics that he caused George Coulter, in his agony, to exclaim, "If your Honor please, Colonel McKinley would have us believe that you was a 'Idee ' and I was an 'Idee ' and we were all 'Idees ' together;" and the fiery Cooper, who, after a long career, has no abatement of his natural force and fire, and Billy Martin, who from an East Tennessee school master raised himself to the bar, and thus educated two brothers who became governors of Alabama.  But where am I going?  Mrs. Grugett had a heavy burden upon her in the support of her family, and keeping her three daughters in the social position formerly held by her family.  The terms of court, in which, only, she had any income, were so short and the vacations (in which she made nothing) were so long that the good lady was sometimes greatly depressed.  But she was a faithful Presbyterian, and a devoted mother, and she heroically maintained the conflict with poverty.  She "made every edge cut," and once when she moved her woodpile, which had been for years in the street, she utilized the rich mould by extending her fence around it, and making a fine crop of onions.  This will, doubtless, excite wonder in the minds of many people, but it must be kept in mind that in those days we had only town constables but now we have marshals with batons of office, and in a case like this not only the onions but the fence around them would have been forfeited, "pro bono publico.
     In this conflict the poor widow was helped by her son Ben.  When he got large enough to water the lawyer's horses he drew to his aid nearly all the boys in town.  When mounted bare-back, Captain Ben would not lead his squadron the nearest way to the water, but the gay crowd would canter south for more than half a mile.  The mothers in town were up in arms, and many a boy who wore white pants, which bore Ben's signet, got "Jesse" when he returned home.  Ben got to be a stout boy, and then in the long vacations, he would go out to the woods with an ox-cart and cut and bring home a supply of wood; but one strange thing was that Ben always rode the steer bare-back.  He seemed to be invulnerable.  As he grew stronger he did all the rough work of the family.  The girls were pretty and genteel.  The eldest, Malonia, married Parker Alexander, who had a plantation on the Tombigbee; Margaret married Ambrose Hunter, and Iantha was courted by James M. Minnis, who had a very good living. Iantha was tall, slender, and so delicate that her friends earnestly advised her not to marry; but she dissented and was stout in maintaining her ground.  The result proved that she was right, for she had ten children. 
     The girls having been provided for, the old lady at length hung up her arms in the Temple of Peace.  And Ben - what about Ben?  Poor fellow!  During all these years of drudgery and labor for others he had been forgotten and his education neglected.  Had his mind grown as his body he would have been a prodigy of intellect.  When he was fully grown, straightened out he measured largely - over six feet.  Ben went off to Mississippi and engaged in manual labor for support, and I have never heard of him but once.  When war was declared with Mexico, my nephew, the late Capt. Joel T. Parrish, of the Jeff. Davis rifles, wrote informing me of his departure.  I answered at once, advising him in forming his mess to include some who were inured to hard labor.  On his return from Mexico he informed me that he invited Ben Grugett into his mess, and owed his life to that fact, for he fell sick and he nursed him like a brother - and morever made a splendid soldier.  For my part I gave him more honor for the noble manner in which he sustained his widowed mother and helpless sisters than I would had he gained a colonel's plume in that campaign.  I omitted to mention in this connection that Mr. Minnis removed his family to Aberdeen many years ago.

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