Dr. Jared D. Owens was born July 25, 1848, in  Glenville, Barbour
county, Ala., and is the son of T. C. Owens and Emily E. Owens.
Receiving a fair education in the schools of his native county, the
doctor, at the age of twenty, ratified his desire to prepare for the
medical profession by entering the office of Dr. J. C. Kendrick, of
Greenville, under whose instructions he continued for less than one
year. Being called upon one day to assist in a surgical operation, he
conceived such a dislike for the profession that he concluded to drop
the study and select some other calling for a life work. 

This he did, and for some time thereafter was engaged in farming and the 
timber business, in the latter of which he was quite successful, until 1873,
when he lost the greater part of his possessions in the great panic of
that year. During the interval between 1873 and 1876 he was engaged in
farming, and in the latter year he resumed the study of medicine and
in 1877 entered the Alabama Medical college at Mobile, from which he
graduated in 1879. Receiving his degree, he engaged in the practice of
his chosen calling near Manningham, Butler county, Ala., on Cedar
creek, and has practiced in the same neighborhood ever since. He has
become very proficient as a practitioner, and occupies a commendable
standing among his professional brethren of southern Alabama, who have
upon different occasions elected him a representative in the State
Medical association, and at different times elected him president of
his county medical society.

The doctor was married November 17, 1868, in Butler county, to
Jeanette, daughter of Dr. G. W. Esselmen, and is the father of eight
children, whose names are as  follows:
Emma Owens, wife of Robert E. Peagler; Anna L. Owens, wife of W. C.
Coleman; Birdie I. Owens, wife of William F. Crenshaw; Jared D.Owens, Jr.; 
Helen V. Owens, Katie Lilian Owens, Jeanette E. Owens and Ethel E. Owens.

The doctor's political affiliations are with the democratic party, and
fraternally he is identified with the Masonic and K. of H. orders. 
He and Mrs. Owens are communicants of the Baptist church.

Paternally, Dr. Owens is descended from the sturdy Scotch-Irish
emigrants that settled in South Carolina in the time of the colonies,
of which state his grandfather Whitman H. Owens, was a native. 
Whitman Owens emigrated to Georgia when a young man, served as 
captain in the Indian war under Jackson, and was one of
the surveyors that subdivided the state of Georgia into congressional
townships. He became a resident of Alabama early in the '20's,
settling in Glenville, Barbour county, where he became a large land
owner and was one of the principal promoters of the Mobile & Girard
railroad, in which he owned a large amount of stock.  In 1856, he
divided his large property among his children, retiring from active
life, and died at the home of one of his sons, Judge Hasting E. Owens,
in Henry county, in 1870.

Col. T. C. Owens, the doctor's father, was a native of Decatur county,
Ga., born about the year 1822.  He became a prominent planter and large
slaveholder, took active part in politics as a Whig, and was a bitter
opponent of secession in the years immediately preceding the great
Civil War.  He married in 1843, in Glenville, Ala., Emily E. Dennard,
daughter of Jared Dennard, a wealthy planter and slave-holder of
Georgia, who subsequently moved to Texas, in which state his death
occurred.  T. C. and Emily Owens resided in Barbour County until after
the birth of all their children, and in 1856 moved to Butler county,
locating in the southeastern portion, where they lived until breaking
up house-keeping a few years ago.  Mr. Owens, while on a prospecting
tour in Mississippi, died in 1889.  His widow still survives, making
her home with her son, Dr. Jared D. Owens.

Col. and Mrs. Owens were the parents of five children:  two boys and
three girls.  The eldest, Henry V. Owens, is a mute, and a highly
educated and accomplished gentleman, holding at this time a
responsible clerkship in a large wholesale establishment; Mary Laura
Owens, also a mute, is a widow, now living in the family of her
brother, the doctor.  Eliza J. Owens, who is similarly afflicted, is
the wife of Henry Brundage of Greenville, Ala.  The youngest daughter,
Mattie P. Owens, is the wife of J. T. Butts, and resides at
Manningham, Ala.  

The peculiar affliction of the three members of  Mr. Owen's family 
was the source of great concern to the father, who spared neither 
money nor pains in giving them the very best education attainable. 
He expended several thousand dollars in their behalf, sent
them to the very best institutions, both north and south, and also
secured the services of an accomplished private tutor to teach them at
home. The second daughter, Mrs. Brundage, whose husband is also a
mute, is the mother of several exceedingly bright children, who so far
have manifested no indications of their parents' peculiar malady.