Owen County, Indiana Genealogical Records Information

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Owen County History and Information

Owen County Facts

Owen County was created on January 1, 1819 and was formed from Daviess and Sullivan Counties. The County was named for Abraham Owen, a colonel who died at the Battle of Tippecanoe.

The County Seat is Spencer. Spencer wasn't always the County Seat. The first County Seat was located at Lancaster, about half a mile up the river from the present town of Spencer on 150 acres donated by John Dunn. On account of a defect in the title to the land, commissioners were appointed to change the location. Spencer became the County Seat February 12, 1820. First settled in 1820, by John Dunn, Philip Hart and Richard Beem, by 1849 it contained a Methodist Church, a Christian Church, four stores, three warehouses, eight mechanics shops, and a population of about 300. See also County History for more historical details.

Counties adjacent to Owen County are Putnam County (north), Morgan County (northeast), Monroe County (southeast), Greene County (south), Clay County (west).

Owen County is divided into 13 Civil Townships as follows: Clay, Franklin, Harrison, Jackson, Jefferson, Jennings, Lafayette, Marion, Montgomery, Morgan, Taylor, Washington and Wayne.

Cities, Towns and Communities include Atkinsonville, Beamer, Carp, Cataract, Coal City, Cuba, Daggett, Denmark, Devore, Freedom, Gosport, Hickory Corner, Highlets Corner, Hubbell, Jordan, Patricksburg, Quincy, Romona, Smithville, Spencer, Southport, Spring Cave, Vandalia, and Wallace Jc.

The Owen County Official Government Website
Owen County Township Map
Indiana Newspaper Holdings for Owen County: The county newspaper holdings are under regular revision, as new microfilm holdings are added. These files are not up to date; there are continuous updates and corrections.
Official County Historians
Owen County, Indiana History Books at Amazon.com

There are free downloadable and printable forms to help with your research. These include U.S. Census Extraction Forms, U.K. Census Extraction Forms, Research Calendar, Ancestral Chart, Research Extract, Correspondence Record , Family Group Sheet , Source Summary Form.

Records at the Owen County Courthouse

PLEASE READ!! Please call the clerk's department to confirm hours, mailing address, fees and other specifics before visiting or requesting information because of sometimes changing contact information.

NOTE: The date listed for each category of record is the earliest record known to exist in that county. It does not indicate that there are numerous records for that year and certainly does not indicate that all such events that year were actually registered. See also the Owen County Courthouse History

Owen County Clerk has Marriage Records from 1819 , Probate Records from 1819 and Court Records from 1819 and is located at 60 South Main Street, PO BOX 146 (mailing address), Spencer, IN 47460; Pho: (812) 829-5015, Fax: (812) 829-5147
The Clerk of the Circuit Court is a ministerial officer who is the custodian of the Clerk's record and seal, issues process, accepts filings of commencement of actions in litigation, enters judgments and orders of the court, receives money in his official capacity, makes certified copies of record, issues many miscellaneous licenses, and keeps a record of all wills and matters of trust in probate proceedings.

Owen County Recorder has Land Records from 1819 and is located at 60 South Main Street Spencer, IN 47460 (812)829-5013.
The county recorder's function is to maintain permanent public records involving a wide variety of instruments. These documents detail transactions involving real estate, mining, personal property, mortgages, liens, leases, subdivision plats, military discharges, personal bonds, etc. Generally, all of these instruments are recorded either for giving legal public notice of their existence or for safekeeping and future reference. The recorder maintains and preserves all legal documents affecting title to real property.

Click Here to Search Indiana Court, Land, Wills & Financial Records! - Researchers often overlook the importance of court records, probate records, and land records as a source of family history information.

Owen County Health Department has Birth / Death Records from 1882 and is located at 60 South Main Street, Spencer, IN 47460; (812) 829-5017

Below is a list of online resources for Owen County Court Records. Email us with websites containing Owen County Court Records by clicking the link below:

Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
Indianapolis Newspaper Index, 1848-1991: Select articles from 1848-1888 Indianapolis daily newspapers; heavily focused on deaths and marriages. Select articles from 1898-1991 about people, places, events, and topics in Indianapolis and the state of Indiana. Extremely limited for deaths; no coverage of marriages. Card file also available in the Microforms Area, second floor.
Reference & Government Services CD Collection: Database to allow searching of the hundreds of CDs from the federal government and other sources, part of the collections of the Reference & Government Services Division.
Owen County, Indiana Court Books at Amazon.com
Indiana Immigration & Emigration Records - Immigration records help the family historian to understand the movements of their ancestry as they relocated to different parts of the world.

Owen County Vital Records

See Also Research In Tax Records

Records of county taxes were kept as early at 1842, although most were discarded. Remaining ones would be at the county courthouse. National Archives-Great Lakes Region has records of the Internal Revenue Service for Indiana for 1867 to 1873. These are tax assessment records, arranged by district and then chronologically.

Below is a list of online resources for Owen County Tax Records. Email us with websites containing Owen County Tax Records by clicking the link below:

Owen County, Indiana Tax Books at Amazon.com

Owen County Genealogical Addresses

See Also Other Indiana Genealogical Addresses

The Repositories in this section are Archives, Libraries, Museums, Genealogical and Historical Societies. Many County Historical and Genealogical Societies publish magazines and/or news letters on a monthly, quarterly, bi-annual or annual basis. Contacting the local societies should not be over looked. State Archives and Societies are usually much larger and better organized with much larger archived materials than their smaller county cousins but they can be more generalized and over look the smaller details that local societies tend to have. Libraries can also be a good place to look for local information. Some libraries have a genealogy section and may have some resources that are not located at archives or societies. Also, take a special look at any museums in the area. They sometimes have photos and items from years gone by as well as information of a genealogical interest. All these places are vitally important to the family genealogist and must not be passed over.

Below is a list of online resources for Owen County Genealogical Addresses. Email us with websites containing Owen County Genealogical Addresses by clicking the link below:

Owen County Historical & Genealogical Society, 110 East Market Street, Spencer, IN 47460; (812) 829-3392
Local Indiana Researchers, Find a local researcher or become a local researcher.
Indiana Libraries: Database to allow searching for Indiana's public libraries.
National Archives - Great Lakes Region (Chicago), 7358 South Pulaski Road, Chicago, Illinois 60629-5898; 773-948-9001; E-mail: chicago.archives@nara.gov (Maintains retired records from Federal agencies and courts in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin.)
General Information Leaflet
Indiana State Archives, 6440 E. 30th St., Indianapolis, IN 46219; (317) 591-5222, [EMAIL]
Indiana State Library, Attn: (Division or Staff Name), 140 North Senate Avenue, Indianapolis, IN 46204-2296
Loan Desk and General Inquiries: 317-232-3675, ind@statelib.lib.in.us
Genealogy Division: 317-232-3689, genealogy@statelib.lib.in.us
Indiana Genealogical Society, P.O. Box 10507, Fort Wayne IN 46852
Indiana Historical Society, 450 W. Ohio St, Indianapolis,IN 46202; 1-800-447-1830 or 317-232-1882
Indiana Newspapers & Periodicals Records - Newspapers and periodicals are the diaries of local communities. They are excellent sources of family history details - often recorded nowhere else. Look for obituaries, marriages, legal notices, and more found in our Historical Newspaper Archives.
indiana Genealogical Society Books at Amazon.com

Owen County Church & Cemeteries

Click Here to Search Indiana Obituary Records! - This database is a compilation of obituaries published in U.S. newspapers, collected from various online sources. Obituaries can vary in the amount of information they contain, but many of them are genealogical goldmines, including information such as names, dates, places of birth and death, marriage information, and family relationships.

There are many churches and cemeteries in Owen County. Some transcriptions are online. A great site is the Owen County Tombstone Transcription Project.

Baptist records are found at Franklin College (in Franklin); Methodist at DePauw University (in Greencastle); Mennonite at Goshen College (in Goshen); Presbyterian at Hanover College (in Hanover); Disciples of Christ at their historical society in Nashville, Tennessee; and French Catholic at Vincennes University in the Byron R. Lewis Collection. There are also Catholic church histories and records at the Catholic Archives, University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana. Quaker records are at Earlham College (at Richmond).

The commissioner's office of each Indiana county may have burial records for soldiers, sailors, and marines. If available, the records should include name, age, date of enlistment, discharge date, and death date. Records begin about 1862.

The Indiana State Library holds records of inscriptions from some Indiana cemeteries. The "Indiana Cemetery Locator File," compiled by the Genealogy Division, is an alphabetical listing of cemeteries, indicating the location in the state and the designation in the Genealogy Division of the Indiana State Library where inscriptions may be found.

Below is a list of online resources for Owen County Cemetery & Church Records. Email us with websites containing Owen County Cemetery & Church Records by clicking the link below:

Family Trees & Genealogy Tidbits

Click Here to Search Indiana Family Tree Records! - The use of published genealogies, electronic files containing genealogical lineage, and other compiled sources can be of tremendous value to a researcher.

When view family trees online or not, be sure to only take the info at face value and always follow up with your own sources or verify the ones they provide. Below is a list of online resources for Owen County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information. Email us with websites containing Owen County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information by clicking the link below:

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Sites on USGenweb: [ Owen County ] [ Indiana ] [ Main Page ]
Search the Family Tree DNA Project- Use DNA testing to break through your genealogical barriers!
The Indiana Family Group Sheet Project
Owen County INGenWeb Archives
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Genealogy Encyclopedia: General Abbreviations, Early Illnesses, Nickname Meanings, Worldwide Epidemics, Early Occupations, Common Terms, Censuses Explained, Free Genealogical Forms
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Indiana Family & Local History Records - The Family & Local Histories Collection lets you read journals, memoirs, and other first-hand historical narratives right on your computer. Gathered from some of the world's finest libraries, these materials may provide hard-to-find town, county, and state information; tax records and wills; military, church, and court records; as well as photographs, stories, and maps.
Genealogical Document Search and Retrieval Service
Owen County, Indiana Family Books at Amazon.com

County History

Owen County was established by an act of the Indiana Legislature, 1818-1819, but was being settled as early as 1816. Indiana became a state in 1816, and was settled from the bottom up by land-hungry, adamantly independent Scotch-Irish, German and English folk with Appalachian frontier roots, including veterans of the American Revolution and the War of 1812. Comrades of Kentuckian Abraham Owen, who dies in the Battle of Tippecanoe, named the county in his honor.

There remain today many parcels of land which have been in the same families since the original homesteaders’ purchases from the U.S. Government. “Congress lands,” they were called, bought at $2 an acre or less.

Owen County’s first residents were prehistoric Indians evidenced by mounds, campsites and ‘workshops’ for making stone implements, the relics of which exist in nearly every township.

At some time or another in their lives, the county was the home of Hoosier poet William Herschell (Ain’t God Good to Indiana?”); playwright William Vaughn Moody; Nellie Belles, mother of former British Prime Minister Harold MacMillan; T.C. Steele, founder of Herron Art School and Brown County’s art colony; Horace Hickam for whom Hickam Field, Hawaii was named; Byron “Ban” Johnson, baseball’s American League founder; James “Babe” Pierce, son-in-law of Edgar Rice Burroughs and an actor in silent films…and a host of other people who have made names for themselves in various fields. Several artists, photographers, and writers (including James Alexander Thom) live and work in the county.

McCormick’s Creek State Park near Spencer was the first in Indiana’s State Park system (1916). Owen County was noted for many years for its extensive printing and quarrying industries.

For more detailed reading, the following are recommended: Blanchard’s History of Owen County, 1884; The New Purchase, Baynard Hall, published in the 1840’s; Glen Black’s survey of Archeology of Owen County in the 1930’s. As I Remember It, by Carl Anderson in the 1940’s; Fact & Folklore of Owen County, 1976 and 1982, and Owen County History, 1994 by former Owen County Historian, Dixie Kline. Owen County Historic and Genealogical Society have many public services and publications available. These are available at the Spencer-Owen Public Library where there is a growing collection of local history and genealogical materials, and works by Owen County authors.

Several exhibits are available in the county including those at the public library in Spencer, Gosport Museum ( a new facility), and on the second floor of the courthouse.

“Sweet Owen”…A True Community

Pioneers first found their way to Owen County around 1816, the year of statehood. Most were of Scotch-Irish, German and English decent, migrating north from Virginia and the Carolinas. Many were veterans of the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. The county was named in honor of a Kentuckian, Abraham Owen, who died in the Battle of Tippecanoe, by fellow soldiers who settled in Owen County.

Owen County's ancestors left a legacy rich in both the arts and business, a heritage of creativity and hard work that is still prevalent today. Ban Johnson, founder of American League Baseball, and E. M. Visquesney, sculptor of the bronze "Spirit of the American Doughboy", were residents of Owen County. Hickam Field in Hawaii is named after Owen County native Horace Hickam, a pioneer in aviation. Samuel Ralston practiced law in Spencer before becoming governor of Indiana. Owen County has been the springboard for governors and prime-ministers, authors and actors, aviators and entrepreneurs.

Two pioneers companies in Owen county were H. B. Laymon's World's Products and Spencer Wood Products. Laymon's was once the largest distributor of counter display cards in the country and employed over one hundred and twenty-five local people during the depression, as well as hundreds of salesmen. Spencer Wood Products was one of the leading manufactures of wooden clothes pins in the country.

The county was also once a major supplier of coal and limestone. Long abandoned, the pits where coal and stone were pulled from the earth now offer some of the best fishing in the southern Indiana.

1849 Adams County Retrospect - Based on "Indiana Gazetteer," published by E. Chamberlain

Owen County, organized in 1819, was named in honor of Colonel Abraham Owen, of Kentucky, who was killed in the Battle of Tippecanoe, while serving as a volunteer aid to General Harrison. It is bounded north by Putnam, east by Morgan and Monroe, south by Greene, and west by Clay, and contains 396 square miles. The civil divisions into townships are Harrison, Wayne and Clay in the east, Franklin and Jefferson on the south, Marion and Morgan on the west, Jackson, Jennings and Taylor on the north, and Montgomery, Washington and Lafayette in the interior. The population in 1830 was 4,060, in 1840, 8,359, and at this time [1849] about 12,000. With the exception of the bottoms of White River, which in general are large and fertile, and a few tracts of level, wet land, when drained, well adapted to grass, the balance of the county is undulating or rolling, a medium between the hilly region farther east and the level country on the north, west and south. The upland portion is generally a rich, clay soil, and well adapted to corn, wheat, oats, grass, and other articles common to the climate. The timber is mostly a good quality. Iron ore and coal are found in abundance in the southern and western part of the county. The former is known to the manufacturer by the name of "liver ore," is destitute of manganese, and contains 44 ½ percent of pure metal. This ore is very easy of access.

The surplus articles exported in 1848, were, 24,534 hogs, 57,760 bushels of wheat, 18,000 do. Of corn, which, with tobacco and other articles of marketing, make the whole amount about the value of $200,000.

There are in Owen County about twenty gristmills, twenty-one sawmills, four carding, machines, one printing office, fifteen stores, two groceries, five lawyers, four-teen physicians, thirteen preachers, nine Christian, seven Baptist, six Methodist and two Presbyterian churches, and eighty-four mechanics of the trades most in demand.

The falls of Eel River furnish the best water power, and are among the most remarkable curiosities in the State. They are three-fourths of a mile apart, the upper fall is 45 feet within a short distance, the lower fall is 35 feet perpendicular. The proprietors of these falls, though they have often talked of making large improvements there, have as yet done but little. Iron ore is abundant in the vicinity. It is much to be regretted that such facilities for valuable and important improvements should not attract the attention to which they have such claims.

The taxable land in the county amounts to 165,768 acres; 19,000 acres have been selected for Canal lands.

John Dunn, Philip Hart, David Thomas and Samuel Bigger made the first settlement in Owen County about the beginning of 1817. The first church organized and the first meeting house and mill built was in 1819. Previous to that time, grain was sent about sixty miles to be ground. As a memorial of the old customs, it appears that at the sale of lots for the County Seat in 1821, the county board allowed $9.87 ½ for whiskey to treat the bidders. Now there is no one authorized to retail spirits, a majority of the citizens having decided not to allow licenses.

1938 Adams County Retrospect - Based on "Indiana Review," published by the State Legislature

Long before the coming of the white man, Owen County was a favorite rendezvous for a number of Indian tribes, due to the beauty and healthful climate found in its picturesque hills and valleys. Today there are yet to be seen through the magnificent forests frequent signs that show where "Sweet Owen" now is, which was then a favorite camping place for the Indians. There is also much in evidence that prehistoric peoples, as their mounds and burial places testify, formerly inhabited this locality. It is certain that in latter times the Delaware, Eel River, Miami and Pottawatomie Indians swarmed the hills and valleys. The land of Owen County is a fine balance of hill country and rich, fertile river and creek bottomland. Particularly outstanding is the Eel River, with its beautiful falls and cataracts. White River traverses the entire southeastern section.

One of the northern group of southern Indiana counties, Owen is the most noted for its production of stone, coal, and tobacco. The famous Oolitic Limestone, used extensively in government structures, is quarried at Ramona. The bituminous coal found here is of the finest quality. The county is also ideal for the production of fruit.

Owen County covers 393 square miles, divided into thirteen townships. The incorporated towns are Spencer, 2,179, and Gosport, 722. Owen County total population for 1890 was 15,040; 1900, 15,149; 1910, 14,053; 1920, 12,760; 1930, 11,357. In 1920, the center of the United States population was in this county, at a point of 1.9 miles west of Whitehall.

Spencer is fifty-three miles southwest of Indianapolis and is served by one railroad. Among its manufactures are flour, lumber, brick, tile, staves, and bottles. The coalmines and limestone quarries in the region are important industrial factors. The largest clothespin factory in the world is here.

The early settlers referred to this county as "Sweet Owen," and today it includes many of the state's foremost natural beauty spots. Chief among them is McCormick's Creek Canyon State Park. Another is Cataract Falls, on Eel River. Other points of interest are Green's Bluffs, Boone's Cave, Owen Park, and Lake Hollybrook. There is a marker north of Gosport, on the site of the boundary line of the Harrison Purchase, commonly known as the "Ten O'clock Line."

The county was the birthplace of T. C. Steele, the noted artist. Spencer was the birthplace of William Vaughn Moody, poet and dramatist, and of the writer and poet, William Herschell. The most famous resident was Samuel Ralston, who settled near Jordan Village.

Owen County had seven manufacturing establishments, according to the 1935 federal census. A total of 179 wage earners were employed on payrolls totaling $129,518. The value of the product was $509,637.

The county had 1,719 farms with an average acreage of 112.8 acres each. Their value was $4,030,440. A total of 34,446 head of livestock was reported. The total county tax valuation for 1936 was $7,539,937.

Courthouse History

Map of Indiana Historical Markers

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