Evan Owen (abt. 1746 - abt. 1819)

Born about 1746 in Chester, Pennsylvania

Died about 1819 at about age 73 in Berwick, Northumberland, Pennsylvania, United States

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Evan was a Friend (Quaker)

Biography

• The information included here comes from a book called The Story of Berwick 1776-1936 that was written the Berwick Sesquicentennial Society in 1936.It is stated in the book that most of the early info came from first hand accounts that were written down 50 years earlier for the centennial and came from people with first hand knowledge that were still living at that time.
• Evan Owen according to records was born about 1747 in Chester County,in 1772 he married Jane(last name unknown) while living in Berks county,they had 4 children,David,Elizabeth,Mordecai and Elisha. As early as about 1773 Evan Owen bought 313 acres of land near what is now Bloomsburg in Columbia County,he only stayed there about a year before selling the land and going back to Philadelphia Co.
• Because of military service he didn't return to the Berwick area until about 1880. When he returned he was accompanied by Benjamin Doan a fellow Quaker and possibly spent a couple of weeks in the area surveying both sides of the Susquehanna River in the area that is now Berwick/Nescopeck and the valley where the Nescopeck/Black Creek flows through.He once again returned to Philadelphia and bought that land from the Penns,it's estimated that he bought as much as 3000 acres.
• When he returned to the Berwick area he bought a few more tracts of land and started laying out the town of Berwick,from that point on he spent the rest of his life as a real estate dealer where he had an advantage over most people because of his surveying knowledge.
• It appears,from information in the book referenced above that Evan Owen may have been related to the Jackson family that had a very big part in the history of Berwick when they founded Jackson Woodin Manufacturing.

Sources

• "United States Census, 1800," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHR4-JDL : accessed 20 September 2018), Even Owin, Briar Creek, Northumberland, Pennsylvania, United States; citing p. 774, NARA microfilm publication M32, (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 37; FHL microfilm 363,340.