Well, you know the saying, “One thing leads to another”. It certainly was in this story.
The AWTHS has been working on displays for America-250 which includes our Southern Darke County Patriots and getting their stories together for display and research. We came upon the patriot, William Walker, who has a memorial stone at Ithaca Cemetery as his actual burial is undetermined. Through reading his story, it was discovered, he lived with his daughter Margaret Walker Owen, the wife of John. His obit was in some of the DAR paperwork file which we were graciously given to help further our research at awths.
As a research facility, we had a previous question about the William Owen family last year. We dug around on Find-a-Grave and plat maps to see what we could find. So, this prompted my interest when the name “John Owen” popped up. Same family?
John and Margaret Owen family
So started digging about the John Owen family from the notes we previously had, Find-a-Grave, the Stephens & Spencer Cemetery book as well as previous notes we had gathered years ago on the Ashleys farms on Gordan-Landis road which mentioned a church there and Lynch Cemetery. Along with our town of Gordon notes and the Gordon Methodist church history already obtained.
Our goal was establishing Margaret, John’s wife, burial or stone. Second, the same for John as his obit mentions “buried on his farm” which takes you to plat maps and deeds to locate his farm location. But to complicate things, it was recorded on Find-a-Grave that the cemetery was at Gordon. And they were buried there. We believe that addendum to the obit was incorrect as well as the deed recording in Anita Short’s Cemetery Inscriptions for Gordon Cemetery. (1960’s) Which required working through all the deed transactions for that section number around Lynch Cemetery for John’s ground. Apparently, ground was deeded for a cemetery at Gordon, but it wasn’t John Owen farm or land.
Deeds-Farm-Lynch Cemetery
With the help of Caroline Petijean and Karen Besecker at Garst Genealogy, they found the deeds and the land was in Twin Township, section 35, on the west side of Gordan-Landis Road. Through different sales and owners, it was the Lynch farm and identified as Lynch Cemetery on 1910 map and earlier maps show the cemetery and church as well. It is not noted after 1910 maps and was therefore probably abandoned and lost to time until discovered in Stephens & Spencer book.
Through the deeds, the family and children of the Owen family were discovered as well: Emeline Owen Cecil, Mary (Polly) Owen Snoderly, Nancy Owen Gordon and William Owen.
Margaret Owen stone was discovered in the 2000’s and we are figuring John’s is there as well. Since his obit says “buried on his farm”.
The cemetery is on private land today and not accessible; however, a photo of Margaret’s stone is available through Stephens & Spencer’s book or at the Garst Genealogy Department. Or any library or location which has the cemetery inscription book.
Timeline:
1830’s Thomas Meeting House-E. C. Thomas. It was noted a log building sat there, not sure if this date or later.
1841 Church spilt
1843 Built new church on John and Margaret Owen farm per deed
1857 Church on plat map and also church cemetery at Gordon. H R Vail owned Owen farm
1875 map no church or cemetery
1888 map cemetery only
1910 map cemetery only
We encourage you to look at the updated Find-a-Grave addition about Margaret Owen and Lynch Cemetery. It is noted a child of the Thomas family (per census) son Sylvester was also buried there as well as Edmond C Thomas and possibly wife, Charity Moyers Thomas. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/181852594/margaret-owen
AWTHS has all the deeds from John Owens land and a copy of the obit as well.
Interesting is the tie to the daughter, Nancy Owen Gordon and husband Henry Gordon, which is another story for a later time!
We hope you have enjoyed our journey through time about new findings and corrections. Sometimes new records or findings are discovered! And it takes careful research looking through all the records.
Please follow AWTHS blog and copyright guidelines as these records are part of AWTHS archives.