OWEN, Hiram Alfred

Arizona Journal – Miner, Prescott, Arizona Thursday, July 8, 1909, page 4, column 4 Another Pioneer Passes Away in Prescott Hiram Alfred Owens, an Old-Time Resident Dies of Dropsy Death yesterday claimed one of the oldest and best-known of the pioneers of Arizona, Hiram Alfred Owens. The end came after months of illness, the fatal affliction being dropsy. For many weeks he was an inmate of the hospital, it was early recognized that his days were numbered, of which he too, was cognizant, informing his many friends to this effect. His mind being set on this gloomy fact, he was free to converse on the past, and he made requests of friends for the future that showed his apparent concern for the life beyond the range. ‘Chloride Jack,’ as he was familiarly known, was in many respects a notable person. In the early days, his magnificent physique, combined with his gential fellowship and generous manner, gave him a wide range of friends. Wherever he went his traits followed him, and whether on the mountain side as a prospector, or in the lobby of a metropolitan hotel, his characteristics never wavered from his open and good-natured personality. He came into prominence in this section to his association with Jackson McCracken, when he discovered the famous McCracken Mine on the Sandy in Mohave county in 1875. Attending the strike they made on that property there are many still remaining here who will remember the stampede that took place to it from Prescott, and the wild elation that sees everybody to get in on the ground floor. Jack Owens, who was on the ground at that time, welcome all, and he assisted many who were stranded, in an endeavor to get hold of the ground adjacent to the bonanza. In the latter and 1875, he and McCracken sold out the location, Owens received about $70,000 in cash and McCracken over $100,000, together with stop of a combined value of over $50,000. In 1876 singles matches San Francisco, and if you live in that city he was married to Miss Gillie. From that union there were two sons, Alfred and Eugene, both residents of that city today. His wife also survives him, residing near Oakland. Mrs. Collins visited him several times while he was living on the Bill Williams river, but it has been many years since she has been in the territory. In the Civil War as he came into prominence as an intrepid man. He was appointed a captain in the Confederate army of his native state, Georgia. In its short time thereafter he was breveted a major, and at the end of the conflict he had arisen to a coloneley, being one of the youngest officers in age to hold that position in the Confederacy. Both war he went to the Pacific coast, adopting mining as a profession. The White Pine excitement attracted him to that Nevada boom town, and it was while there but his knowledge of chloride oars rapidly one for him the sobriquet of ‘Chloride Jack,’ which has followed him to the day of his death. Mr. Owens had been to every excitement on the Pacific coast up to 1869, when he came to this section, Prescott being his objective. Since then he was always his base of operations, and the McCracken excitement was first mentioned by him while he was living here, and for which point he outfitted from the city. It seems a sad coincidence that it was here he came to end his earthly career. A few days before his death several old pioneers were to see him. To Major Doran, a life-long friend, but a member of the Union army in the days of the terrific strife, he made a farewell request of a brother soldier saying to him: ‘when I am laid away, major, please have that old Confederate uniform wrapped around me, as I want to go with it on.’ This request will be followed out, and the old gray suit will be put on the body. It bears the symbol of the colonel's rank, and it at many grand Army parade in the city in years gone, Mr. Owens wore it while in the ranks of the old, old soldiers on the other side of the ‘fence,’ as he tersely puts it. Another farewell request was but an old and worn pocket album, containing the pictures of his wife, taken on the day of his marriage, together with that of his two sons, be buried with him. This request, to, will be followed out. The tender and sympathetic nature of the man is best-known in this instance. He was about 65 years of age, and surviving is a brother, Jack on, who is in Mohave county, mining in the shadow of the old McCracken mountain.