John Owen, Marker H-12
Posted by: 
showbizkid
N 35° 43.346 W 079° 10.630
17S E 664870 N 3954694
John Owen was a member of the state legislature, an early supporter of the vote for land-owning blacks and served as Governor of North Carolina. He could easily have become President of the United States had he accepted an offer to run as Vice President on Henry Harrison's ticket in 1840. (Harrison died in office about a month into his term.)
Waymark Code: WMBCW
Location: North Carolina, United States
Date Posted: 04/27/2006
Views: 19
This marker is located on Hillsboro Street in Pittsboro. Owen's grave, mentioned in the marker is also a Grave of a Famous Person Waymark.
John Owen was born in Bladen County, North Carolina. He briefly attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, but did not earn a degree.
In 1812, Owen was elected to the North Carolina House of Commons and served there for two years. He was later elected to one year in the North Carolina Senate (1819-1820). Named to the North Carolina Council of State, in 1824, Owen returned to the state senate in 1827 but was elected governor by the General Assembly in December 1828, serving until 1830.
In 1835, Owen was a prominent member of the North Carolina Constitutional Convention; there, he supported enfranchisement of land-owning Negro citizens and opposed religious tests for officeholders.
Although during his earlier political life, Owen affiliated himself with the National Republican Party, in 1839, he presided over the first state convention of the emerging Whig Party. Three weeks later, he served as president of the National Whig Convention in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Owen was offered the vice-presidential position on the Whig presidential ticket of William Henry Harrison. He turned down the nomination. Had he accepted, Owen might have become President of the United States following Harrison's death early in office instead of John Tyler.
Owen retired to his farm in Chatham County, North Carolina, where he died in October 1841; he is buried in Pittsboro, North Carolina.
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