Clark Owens

Owen’s fourth child was Clark Owens, born May 11, 1878 in Linden, Iowa. He was single and still living with the family in Santa Cruz in 1900, working as an electric car motorman. It appears that he married Elizabeth “Bessie” Scott Morgan. Scott is her mother’s maiden name, and often she is listed as Elizabeth or Bessie M Owens, which I believe was probably for her maiden name of Morgan. The WWI Draft lists his wife, and they are married and living in Oakland, Alameda, California in the 1920 census. On that census there are Reichhold and Tuttle families as well, and Clark and Bessie have three children all over the age of ten. The 1930 census shows them as first married about 1903, and Bessie’s sister Gladys living with them. And the 1910 census is where I go crazy. Clark and Bessie have a story to tell, but I don’t know what it is. I sincerely hope that someday I will be able to contact some of their descendants who know what was going on.


I found Clark on the 1910 census, as a lodger, who was married and had been married for seven years. That fits with the 1930 census. He was a lodger with the MORGAN family, of whom Bessie is one of the children and is listed as SINGLE. I’d put that down as a census error, but the 1920 census shows three children all over the age of ten. They should have been listed with their parents, but they aren’t there!!! And I can’t find them elsewhere with any relatives in California. I just can’t think of a scenario that makes sense.

Clark and Bessie’s oldest child is Helen L Owens. She was born December 16, 1904 and died November 29, 1997. The info from the California Death Index lists her Father’s last name as Owens, and her Mother’s maiden name as Morgan. Helen married Clarence Frederick Reichhold, and they had two sons, Jack and Lawrence Morgan. Jack married Marge, and they had a boy and a girl in the early 1950’s.

Their second child was Merle Ruth Owens, born March 19, 1908, died September 5, 1983. Both her birth and death info list her mother’s maiden name as Morgan. The 1920 census lists her incorrectly as a Male. She married Robley Day Gilbert.

Their third child was Morgan Clark Owens. He was born January 4, 1907 and died August 5, 1978 in Contra Costa, California.