James Bertram Owens

James Bertram Owens was the third child of David D and Francis M Owens. He was born on March 16, 1874 in Missouri. He married Orlena E Elliot after 1900, probably in Missouri, and before 1906 when he first appears in Santa Cruz working as a teamster. Sometime prior to 1910 he starts a Transfer Business with his brother David Arthur. Starting in 1938 he is an Automobile Dealer.


His wife Orlena was born in Ohio on July 12, 1884. By 1900 her family moved to Jasper, Missouri, where she would have met James. She died in Santa Cruz on 21 January, 1956.

They had two children. Their daughter, Frances was born in Santa Cruz July 9, 1906, and she died December 31, 1988 in Alameda, California. She was married to a Russell. Their son, Elliott R Owens was born in Santa Cruz on April 5, 1912 and died in Marin, California on June 27, 1979. He was married first to Louise Annabelle Hocom and later in life he married Mary T Grubb. I don’t know if either of them had any children.

David Arthur Owens

David Arthur Owens, the second child of David D and Francis Owens, was born in Missouri on December 3, 1872. By 1900 he was living in Santa Cruz, California, and working as a driver for the fire department. He married Ida Saloma Doane around 1905, and by 1910 he is the proprietor of an express company that he co-owns with his brother James Bertram. He continues to own and run that business until at least 1944. His wife Ida painted china. They didn’t have any children of their own, but raised Ida’s niece Beverly. I have not been able to find out when they died.


It just dawned on me that driver for the fire department at that time would have been horse drawn equipment, and his business, as well, when it was started, would have been wagons pulled by horse or oxen or the like. Interesting. I have found the business listed in Santa Cruz in the 1970’s, but now I can only find what may be that business operating in Truckee, California and Northern Nevada.

Edwin J Owens

Edwin J Owens, the oldest son of David D Owens and Francis M Stout, was born in Missouri, February 15, 1870. He lived with his family in Jasper until his marriage to Alice Folger on 7 March 1898. In 1900 they were living on her mother’s farm, and he was farming. By 1910 they had moved to the Canyon City area of Colorado where he was working as a butcher and was back to farming again in 1920. By 1930 they had moved to Santa Cruz, California, where he was a proprietor of a furniture business. By 1942 he had retired and continued to live in Santa Cruz until his death on March 16, 1950. His wife Alice was born in Missouri in December of 1873, and appears to have outlived Edwin, but I haven’t been able to verify when she died.


Their only child, David Benjamin Owens was born on December 31, 1898 in Missouri. He was living with his parents in Colorado in the 1910 and 1920 census, but as early as 1918 he was in Santa Cruz, driving truck for Owens Bros Trucking. He was in Santa Cruz during the 1930’s and early 1940’s, sometimes working for his father in the furniture store. After the early 1940’s I am unable to find him until his death in San Francisco on August 30, 1978. He was married around 1925 to a woman named Mildred and they had two children in Colorado before they moved to Santa Cruz. They were Virginia B, born 1925, and Benjamin, born in 1926.