John Owen

Who was John Owen?

John Owen was the 24th Governor of the U.S. state of North Carolina from 1828 to 1830.

Owen was born in Bladen County, North Carolina; he was the son of Thomas Owen, a judge and member of the state legislature. 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. 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, narrowly defeating Richard Dobbs Spaight, Jr. in a vote of 96 to 92.

Owen served two consecutive one-year terms as governor, during which he promoted education and served concurrently as President of the University of North Carolina Board of Trustees. He was nominated for a third term as governor, but declined the nomination; that same year, he lost by one vote a bid to represent North Carolina in the United States Senate.

In 1835, Owen was a prominent member of the North Carolina Constitutional Convention; there, he supported enfrancishement of land-owning Negro citizens and opposed religious tests for officeholders.