May 17

Elmer Lee Owen died 17 May 1918, age 26

This is the picture that's on his gravestone.

Elmer was a son of Paralee Carter Owen. Paralee was a sister of my great-grandmother Adaline Carter Arnold.

PHOTO: sisters Adaline, Ellen, Paralee Carter

The back of the picture says this was taken "at the Arnold homeplace in Banner, Arkansas"

This is what my great-grandmother, Annie Arnold Hicks, wrote:

Aunt Parlie’s (Ma’s sister) oldest son died of heart trouble at about 25 years old in southern Arkansas, around Athens, Arkansas in 1916.  Just a small place probably doesn’t show on the map.  He was a school teacher.  His name was Elmer Owen. 

This is what my grandmother, Cleffie Hicks Burford wrote:

Melinda Paralee Carter Owen, wife of David Jackson Owen, had a real good disposition and could sew or make anything by looking at a piece of finished work or a picture of it.

Paralee married David Jackson Owen 4 November 1899 in Couch, Oregon County, Missouri.

Here is what one of the Carter cousins wrote about Paralee and David --

They had six children.  The first three boys were born in Missouri, Elmer, Perry, and Clyde.  Perry died in infancy.  In 1896 the Owen family, David, Parralee, Elmer and Clyde started out on a move to Texas with a two-wheel cart and a mare and a few belongings.  They arrived at Dutch Mills, near Stillwell, Oklahoma in Indian Territory about the first of October.  They stopped there to await the arrival of their fourth child which was John Thomas, born 4 October 1896.  As soon as Parralee was able to travel they were on their way to Texas.   They arrived in Denton, Texas in the spring of 1897.  They tried farming for awhile but times were so hard they decided to try finding something in Arkansas.  They and David’s brother, Jim and his family started out in three covered wagons the middle of November, 1904. The entered Arkansas near DeQueen the first of December.  David and Parralee and children settled at Athens, Arkansas.  Living conditions were much better there. Cotton was their main crop.  Before this move to Arkansas, two more children were born to David and Parralee, Ola Mae born in 1899, and William Jackson in 1902...

  Elmer Owen died at about age 26 and Clyde at age 14, so only three of the Owen children married and had families. Melinda Parralee Owen visited her Carter relatives in Cleburne County, Arkansas a few times but her children and grandchildren never knew or didn’t pass down any information about the Arkansas kin.  The Arkansas kin remembered her as having a  great personality. Parralee died 24 March 1943 of influenza in Athens, Howard County, Arkansas. 

This is the only other picture I have of Elmer Lee Owen