The John S. Owen Lumber Company papers include the records of many related companies, which were controlled by John S. Owen or by his relatives and associates. The interests of these companies included logging and lumbering enterprises through Wisconsin and South Dakota to Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, California, & Oregon. They survived wars, panics, and depressions from 1893 and 1907 through 1939. These interests also included real estate companies, railroads, overseas shipping, and a cotton plantation with gin and cotton warehouses.
John S. Owen, born May 1, 1849 at Clarkston, Michigan, was the son of State Senator John G. Owen. He married Cora Mathilda Rust in 1872, and in 1873, he left his father's wholesale grocery and lumber business to engage in his own business of lumbering and logging in Wisconsin.
In 1882, with Aloney J. Rust and Ralph E. Rust, he organized the Rust Owen Lumber Company, which operated until 1938, and which was not dissolved until 1942. In 1893, he organized the John S. Owen lumber Company, of which he was president until his death on June 21, 1931.
Though he retained the office of president of John S. Owen Lumber Company until his death, Owen previously turned over to his son, A. R. Owen, much of the managerial responsibility of the business. Records show too, that the other sons, John G., Ralph W., and Frank G., were actively associated in the financial affairs and operations of the various companies. Rust, Gilchrist, and Drummond family names appear among the major stockholders and company officers.
