John ‘the Trader’ Owens

Not a known son of Robert Owen.

John Owens

• married 1) Judith in Ireland before 1730.
• married 2) daughter of Chief Tanacharisson about 1745.
• married 3) Hannah
• Died 1787 Booths Creek, Taylor, West Virginia, USA. [3]
• Residence 1782 Monongalia County, West Virginia, USA.

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Biography

Wives

https://wvancestry.com/Files/John_Owens_Indian_Trader.pdf

Piecing together the information from both accounts we can surmise John Owens I was indeed married to the Half King's daughter. John was not named in James Young's letter, but is named in the Gazette account. Plus Mclure was indeed involved in the Indian Trade before the war, so his description is correct.

Some have given John's Indian wife the name Maths, which likely isn't her name. This error may have come from the fact she was called a Metis Indian? Others have given her the name Seneca Hannah. We do find a Hannah Owens mentioned in a Cumberland County, PA deed. Her husband is named as a John Owens in the same deed. I believe this Hannah also petitioned the colonial government at one point.

A Judith Owens appears to be a relative of the Tenmile Creek Owens family. Judith appears on tax lists in Morgan Township, Washington County, Pennsylvania from 1781 to 1785. She owns 200 acres of land; until, 1785 when she is taxed on only 50 acres. We know John Owens I had at least two wives due to the fact his sons George and David were described as half brothers (according to David's son).

Hannah Owens Broshear's had a daughter named Judith. I'm not sure whether the older Judith was another wife of John I? John Owens II mentioned his aged mother in his 1781 will, but didn't give her name.

Another wife we have evidence for is Hannah Owens, as mentioned above. Hannah is named as a wife of John Owens in a deed dated 4 July 17573 in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, and a 1763 mortgage4 for the same land.

We have no further information for the wives of John Owens I.

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https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Owens-688

Three Owens brothers came from Ireland to Maryland in the mid 1700s. John went west. In 1747 and 1748 John Owens was listed as an unlicensed trader from Chester County, Pennsylvania. On 28 May 1751 he was reported to be an Indian trader operating in the Ohio territory in or near Logstown. In 1754, John was a guide to George Croghan at Aughwick. In 1758 he was a guide and interpreter in the army of General Forbes, moving on Fort DuQuesne.

He settled in the Ten Mile Country where he became a trader with the local natives about 1774. His sons Capt. George , Capt. David , and John, Jr. also lived at Ten Mile Creek. Son David reportedly killed and scalped his native wife and children but was often sought after for his bravery and military skills.[1] Son John, Jr. moved just west of the courthouse in Waynesburg in 1781.[2]

Neighbors of the Owens' are John Ankrom, father of Jacob Ankrom, and Robert Gorrel, the founder of Middlebourne, West Virginia.

“John Owens I the Indian Trader first appears on our stage in 1748 as an unlicensed trader.He was in western Pennsylvania in 1751, in Logstown (near present day Pittsburgh), when he is present at a treaty making involving the Six Nations (Iroquois), Delawares, Shawnee, Owendatts, and Twightwees. This treaty was made in May 1751.”

We know John Owens I had at least two wives due to the fact his sons George and David were described as half brothers (according to David's son).

There is no record of John Owens I’s death. His probate record was probably destroyed in a 1796 fire at the Monongalia County, Virginia courthouse.

https://www.genealogy.com/ftm/o/w/e/Robert-L-Owens-CAMERON/WEBSITE-...

Children of Maths Tanacharisson and John Owens I are:

1. James Owens, b. Abt. 1762, Owens Run, Waynesburg, Pa.6260, 6260, 6260, d. 1778, Ft. Powers, located about 1 mile north of the town of Bridgeport, on Simpson's Creek, in Harrison Co. (Cook)--now in Simpson District.
2. +John Owens II, b. Abt. 1763, Owens Run, Waynesburg, Pa.6261, 6262, d. Apr 1781, TenMileCreek, Washington Co., PA killed by Indians, Spring of 1781
3. +Hannah Owens, b. Bef. 1781, Owens Run, Waynesburg, Pa., d. Bef. Feb 14, 1822, Bracken Co, KY

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https://www.genealogy.com/ftm/o/w/e/Robert-L-Owens-CAMERON/WEBSITE-...

1. John OWENS died 26 MAR 1764 in PA. He married Indian Maiden, daughter of Cheif TANACHARISSON. He married Judith UNKNOWN.
Children of John OWENS and Indian Maiden are:

• + 2i. Susannah OWENS was born 1750 in Pennsylvania, and died BEF 1 D
• EC 1827 in Bracken, KY.
• 3ii. Agnes OWENS. She married Sebastian SCHROFE (SCHROSSE).
• + 4iii. John OWENS died ABT APR 1781 in Waynesburg.
• 5iv. George OWENS died ABT OCT 1789 in Ohio River area-.
• + 6v. David OWENS.

Child of JohnOWENS and Judith UNKNOWN is:

• + 7i. John OWENS died 1781 in TenMileCreek, Washington Co., PA kill
• ed by Indians.

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https://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/owens/8754/

Hello Owens researchers, it seems to me that someone has combined 2 different John Owens in to one and is perpetuating this situation with circumstantial evidence.I do not have proof but my information indicates that John Owens, married to Maths Tanacharrison, died in 1764.This John Owens also had 2 children with an unknown Judith.Additionally Maths is purported to having died in Waynesburg PA between 1771 and 1775.John's son John, married to Susannah unknown died in Waynesburg/Ten Mile Creek, Washington Co, PA and lists his aged mother, which according to circumstantial evidence is Judith.

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Indian Blood- Pangburn pp 364-365 "On July 22nd, 1756, commissary James Young wrote from Carlisle, that 'Last Monday two Indian squaws that were at Fort Shirley went off with one of our men, a fellow that had formerly been an Indian trader; the squaws are the daughters of the Half King that was killed last winter..." Another letter of the day, quoted by Benjamin Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette, stated that 'the Indian wife of John Owen and another Indian woman have left Fort Shirley, and it is imagined are going to the Ohio with one McLure, a solider, who had deserted." Did she later rejoin John and have other children or is it possible that only George Owens, always noted as "half brother" to John and David, is the only son with Indian blood, and then perhaps Agnes? Is is possible all the other children are the children of Judith? Hannah names a daughter Judith... who knows?

Children & grandchildren of John Owens

References

• ”John Owens I Indian Trader, and family.”(First edition, March 2019). By Annette Kople. https://wvancestry.com/Files/John_Owens_Indian_Trader.pdf
• http://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/owens/5942/
• https://books.google.com/books?id=mydlCQAAQBAJ&pg=PP203&lpg=PP203&d...
• http://annettekapple.blogspot.com/2013/08/john-owens-sr-bigamy-chil...

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