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Owens, Thomas

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a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was born in South Carolina Jan. 8 1787, and was the son of Thomas and Frances Owens. His parents took him to the Natchez country when young, and settled in what is now Jefferson County. Thomas was in early manhood perverted to vicious purposes. In his twenty-fourth year he became an earnest seeker of salvation from sin. As a preliminary step, he united with the Church in 1810, and was soon after converted while kneeling to receive the holy communion. He was soon encouraged by his brethren to take an active part in the social meetings of the Church. where he successfully commenced those extraordinary labors which made him so conspicuous in afterlife. He was admitted into the traveling connection Nov. 1, 1813, as a member of the Tennessee Conference, and was effective seventeen years, during which time he traveled four years in Alabama, four years in Louisiana, west of the Mississippi, and nine years in various parts of Mississippi. He was on the superannuated list thirty-eight years, but most of that time he rendered efficient service as a self-supporting minister. All who have succeeded him in his different fields of ministerial labor know what a deep and lasting impression his preaching and other kindred exercises made on the minds of all classes. He had learned by experience and practical observation all the avenues leading to the human heart, and he knew how to touch every chord of human sympathy. His native wit and genius cropped out everywhere. He said what other men said, and preached the same doctrines his brethren preached, but it was all said and preached in his own peculiar and attractive style. His genial face, the indescribable intonations of his voice, his apt illustrations and gestures, all combined to keep up an interest in his hearers. He died July 1, 1868. But few men of his talents ever accomplished a similar amount of good. See Minutes of the Conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 1868.