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Madera County, California
GenWeb
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..Madera Biographies: Owens
| SAMUEL G. OWENS - Samuel G. Owens is the senior member
of the board of supervisors of Madera County. He was first elected in 1918
and has been re-elected continuously since from the first district.
Mr. Owens was born in Prince George County, Maryland, February 25, 1863, the son of John and Sarah Eleanor (Dove) Owens. He came to California and to what is now Madera County in 1886. His first employment was with the Yosemite Stage Company as driver, and he continued in this line for thirty years, being finally superintendent of the company. He and his stage had note all around the world from a photograph taken driving through the Mariposa Big Tree with a team of six. This picture was taken just before the St. Louis International Exposition of 1904, for use in connection with the Southern Pacific publicity. After severing his connection with the stage company, Mr. Owens became a grain farmer. As supervisor he has worked for the development of Madera as a center of tourist attraction and for the promotion of Yosemite highway travel. Mrs. Owens, who was Francena Skelton, is a native of Mariposa County. This family includes four children. John Edwin, Union Oil company agent at Sanger; Marjorie (Mrs. E. J. Nehlsen) of Hanford; Elma (Mrs. L. C. Deck); she and her husband are both public accountants of Hollywood; Mae Owens, who is secretary of the dean of the University of California hospital at San Francisco. All the children were born in Madera County except the eldest, who was born in Fresno County. Samuel G. Owens has been master of Madera Lodge of Masons of which he has been a member since 1897, and patron of the Order of the Eastern Star. Mrs. Owens is past matron of the Eastern Star. From the History of Fresno and Madera Counties, 1933, Joseph Barcroft, editor for Madera County. |