My name is Thomas Owens. I was born in 1836 in England. I became a US citizen on the sixth day of October 1888, though I came over a few years before that. I first voted only a month later, on the sixth day of November 1888. My wife, Maria Fenn-Owens, was born in Ohio. We lived together in Waterford, Erie County, Pennsylvania. My first child, Grace, was born on the twenty-sixth of November 1865. Two years later came my first son, Leroy, and two years after him came Eugene. Three years after Eugene was my second daughter, Hatty. Two years after her was Daniel, and two years after him came Blanch. My next son, three years after Blanch, was named Thomas, after me. Next was Mariah, only a year after Thomas, and three years after Mariah came Arthur. My last child, Alice, was born on the thirteenth day of April 1887, and died on the seventeenth day of May 1889. She was my tenth and last child.
Arthur’s wife, Cora Hill, was from Canada. They lived at 16 Pooley Place when they had a daughter, Naomi, in 1902 and a son, Clarence, in 1904. Cora died in 1913, only getting to see her children grow to 11 and 9 years old. After her death, Arthur married Catherine Collins. Arthur died on the twenty-fifth day of April 1961.
I died in 1912, at the age of 76 and was buried with my daughter, Alice. Maria joined us two years later.
