General Notes

Obituary of Lilburn Owens:
From the Bloomfield News, Bloomfield, Greene County, Indiana, Friday
December 8, 1905, Volume xxx, Number 3, Page 4, Column 1.
Death of a Pioneer, the father of Owensburg passes away at age of ninety.
Lilburn Owens, one of the pioneers of Greene County, after whom the town
of Owensburg was named, died last Saturday at Owensburg at the advanced
age of nearly ninety years.
He established the first blacksmith shop in that town and for more than
forty years worked at that trade. It is recorded that on the first Monday
in August, 1842 Lilburn Owens commenced work on his blacksmith shop in
this town. At the same time he got out timber for a dwelling and a
stable. As soon as the dwelling was finished the family moved in, and
this was the beginning of Owensburg. Thirty or forty men from near and
far, who were wanting a blacksmith shop nearer than Springville, turned
out and helped put up the buildings, done all in one day.
In March 1848, the place had taken on the appearance of a village and the
county surveyor was employed to lay off a number of lots. It was the
intention to call the town Owensville but it was found that there was
already one postoffice by that name in this State and so the Owensburg
was adopted instead.
Mr. Owens was noted for his great energy and his industrious habits,
always hard at work at something. After he gave up blacksmithing he
became a farmer, and on the farm he was also known for his tireless
energy.
He was united in marriage three times and by each wife he had a large
number of children, being the father of about eighteen or twenty
altogether.
His first wife was Elizabeth Owen, a sister of Mrs. Isabel Hert, of this
place; and he was an uncle of Mrs. James Stalcup; the second was Mary
McDowell; and the third was Mary Duncan. He was an estimable citizen,
possessed of many manly qualities, and had long been a member of the
Baptist church.
The funeral services were held Sunday from the M.E. church at Owensburg
and the remains were laid to rest in the cemetery at that place.
Emanuel Hatfield Cemetery, Owensburg, Greene Co., Indiana. Section
27-T6N-R4W, page 127.