The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-12-07
MAJOR OWENS DEAD
Famous Wichita Citizen Is
Buried in San Francisco.
WAS KANSAN SINCE 1854
Noted for His EccentriCitieS
and KnowIege of History

Mr.. D. T. Dunbar received the following
letter yesterday, reciting the death Of Ma
jor Adna owens, who was a famous char
acter in Wichita from 1874 to 1894:
Colusa, Cal. Nov. 30. 1898.
Mr.. Dave Dunbar.
Dear sir-I write to inform you that my
uncle Adna F. owen, had stroke of apo
plexy, while on the street of San Fran
cisco, Thanksgiving Day, November q,
and died at 1890 the next day. He was
buried in the National cemetery last Mon
day afternoon.
He had become very feeble in the last
year. Death came very Unexpectedly 10
him, and he was sick only short time.
lie was buried just where he wanted 10
morning and the flag waves over mis- last
resting place. May he rest in peace.
I knew you, being a good old friend,
would like to know the particulars Of his
death. Yours respectfully,
MRS. a. P. SPAULDING.
Major Owen was a strong, eccentric
character, and was personally acquainted
with the great characters of Kansas early
history. He knew Jim Lane and all his
followers. Major Owen came to Kansas
from Vermont in 1854. and when the civil
war came went into the army as sergeant
major Of the Seventh Kansas.
He first located in Kansas at Leaven-
worth. but after the close OF the war set
tied at Junction City. where he lived until
coming to Wichita, in 1874. He was clerk
Of the district court in Riley county for
eight years.
soon after coming TO Wichita he was
made a notary public. and during the
boom here fixed up the papers for more
large deals than probably any other man
in the city.
He left Wichita three years ago. going
to Cousa, Cal, where he had some re,a-
tives It was not long before he landed
in San Francisco, where he has since
lived and where he died on Thanksgiving
Day. He was about 60 years of age. From
the moment he saw the National cemetery
at san Francisco, he expressed a desire
to be- buried there, where he knew every
morning and night the cannon would boom
across his grave in the national salute.
Owen" TO the exclusion of all other an
teristic was his minute knowledge of mill
tary campaigns. He could not only relate
Napoleon's experience at the Bridge of
Lodi but he could, with an astonishing
memory, recite the positions of the army
previous to the climax; their strength, the
condition OF their ammunition, their ord
nance and its size and fitness. He had as
u,
sian army at Sadowa as Bismarck himself
had. He knew the wings, arms, divisions,
battaIions almost, of Waterloo, the hours
OF the day when Napoleon waned and
when he waxed. He knew European poll |
tics and retained them with a tenacity
which was strange in westerner
lie left Wichita long before the war with !
Spain broke out, but one Of his predictions
OF coming war was singularly carried
out. one night when he was in a laxative
mood, in J. p. Aliens drug store, he said
to the writer that barb-wire was a new
element in warfare, and a dangerous Gle |
ment. lie thought it could be made very !
effective-more effective indeed than wall |
of ston or embankment OF sand. One of
his anxieties to see a modern war was for |
the purpose of determining what figure |
barb-wire would cut OF course he did
live to see the Spanish use it cruelty be /
fore Santiago.
lie considered Napoleon the greatest |
general tn world has produced, but with /
an amusing judicial strain which marked 1
his whole life he would censure his heroes
with great impartiality, at times growing |
furious at what he considered the meress |
tactical plumbers on the part Of great COM
manders.
He has afforded many a blackstone /
group in Wichita a winters night enter
tanment Resentful of interruption, CO. /
pious in detail, hero-loving and paternaIy /
rugged in his criticism of all history, |
Wichita viii probably never see his Ike
aSain.
In the civil war he was a brave soldier.
and many daring things were recounted in |
his time to his account. He was with Mr. |
Mayberry, 4 brother of Mrs NJ. NJ Muir
dock in Arkansas. when they ran into
ambush and Mayberry, very daring man,
was killed This was one of the incidents
in his own career thata Owen liked to
narrate.
lie used 70 sit around and figure on con-
5itions in Jupiter and the size of human
beings on that planet. He firmly believed
thata the planet was inhabited-that, in
proportion TO nature here on the earth.
men would be twenty-four miles high on
Jupiter. on the theory that men there
were proportional As they are here. he
figured that a Jupterian's tooth would be
LoG feet long. lie always reduced his
proposition 20 a proportion: - miles:
IL; - inch TO y. y tooth from q full
grown man in Jupiter would reach near..,