History of Jonesboro, (Jefferson County) Alabama United States of America

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Thomas McAdory Owen, historian, was born in Jonesboro, Jefferson county, Ala., Dec. 15, 1866; son of Dr. William Marmaduke and Nancy (McAdory) Owen; grandson of Judge Thomas and Dolly Payne (Williams) Owen, and great-grandson of Marmaduke and Agnes (Payne) Williams. Agnes Payne was a first cousin of Dorothy Payne, wife of President James Madison. His Owen and Williams ancestors were seated in Henrico and Hanover counties, respectively, in Virginia, as early as the beginning of the eighteenth century, and his McAdory ancestor was a Scotch-Irish immigrant from North Ireland to South Carolina prior to the Revolutionary war. He was graduated from the University of Alabama, A.B. and LL.B., 1887, A.M., 1893. He was admitted to the bar in 1887 and practised in Bessemer, Carrollton and Birmingham, Ala., until March 1, 1901, when he retired from the active practice of law and devoted himself to literary pursuits. He was married, April 12, 1893, to Marie, daughter of the Hon. John H. Bankhead . He was elected secretary of the Alabama Historical society, June 21, 1898; secretary of the Sons of the Revolution in Alabama, April 16, 1894, and a member of the American Historical association in 1894. He was one of the founders of the Southern History association of Washington, D.C., April 24, 1896; was instrumental in the establishment of the Alabama Department of Archives and History, located in the state capitol at Montgomery, Ala., Feb. 27, 1901, and was elected its director, March 2, 1901, and in July, 1902, issued the first number of The Gulf States Historical Magazine, published bi-monthly. He edited the Transactions of the Alabama Historical Society (vols. 1 to 4, 1898-1902,) and the Report of the Alabama History Commission (1901). He is the author of a City Code of Bessemer, Alabama (1888); Bibliography of Alabama (1897); Bibliography of Mississippi (1900), Annals of Alabama 1819-1900, being an addenda to Pickett's History of Alabama (1900); separate genealogies of the Lester, Strother, Eaton, Stansel, Lacey, Kelly, Fisher and Ross families; a History of the Great Seal of Alabama, and a sketch of Ephraim Kirby, the first Superior Court Judge in what is now Alabama.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Jonesboro, (Jefferson County) Alabama

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