Owen David D
NAME: Owen, David Dale
ACHIEVEMENTS: One of the best early American geologists and surveyors.
NICKNAME/ALIAS: None
DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH: 24 June 1807, near Glasgow, Scotland
DATE AND PLACE OF DEATH AND AGE AT DEATH: 13 November 1860, New Harmony, IN. Aged 53
DISCIPLINE: Geologist
FIELD: Geological surveying
LANGUAGE: English
PARENTS: Father: Robert Owen Mother: Anne Caroline Dale
SIBLINGS: 3 brothers: Robert Dale, William, Richard 3 sisters: Ann, Jane, Mary
SPOUSE: Caroline Neef
CHILDREN: 4 EDUCATION: Private tutors New Lanark School, Scotland Hofwyl College, near Berne, Switzerland Andersonian Institute, Glasgow
MAJOR WORK: "Report of a Geological Reconnaissance of the State of Indian" (1838-39) "Report of a Geological Reconnaissance of the Chippewa Land District" (1848) "Report of a Geological Survey of Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota" (1852) "Report of a Geological Reconnaissance ..of Arkansas" (1858, 1860)
LIFE AND TIMES: Owen was the son of the reformist factory owner and philanthropist <son of> Robert Owen*.
He completed his education at a progressive school in Switzerland and at college in Glasgow where he studied chemistry under <taught by> Ure*.
In 1828 he went to New Harmony in Indiana, America where his father, in partnership with the geologist <collaborated with> Maclure*, had just abandoned his attempt to establish a utopian co-operative community. Owen could not make a living as a chemist in New Harmony and in 1830 he went to New York City where his brother Robert Dale Owen* was living.
He became friendly with the geologist Henry Rogers in New York and travelled back to England with him in 1831. Owen studied geology at London University and met the geologist <met> Lyell*.
He returned to New Harmony in 1833 where he established a laboratory for research in chemistry and geology. He also studied medicine at Ohio Medical College in Cincinnati. Owen's geological contacts had stimulated his interest in the subject and he spent the summer of 1836 as an assistant to Gerard Troost who was doing a geological survey for the state of Tennessee.
In 1837 Owen received his medical degree and married <wife was> Caroline Neef*, the daughter of <married daughter of> Neef*, the pioneering educationalist who had been one of the original New Harmony members. In the same year the influence of his brother <brother was> Robert Dale Owen* got Owen the job of Indiana state geologist.
Over the next two years, Owen surveyed the major rock divisions in the region, and made a regional survey of mineral resources for the state, which included the limits of the coal-bearing rocks and iron ore deposits. He was the first in America to use the term 'carboniferous' in the modern sense.
In 1839 he accepted a federal job with the Treasury Department's General Land Office, which wanted an urgent survey of around 11,000 square miles in Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois as part of a drive to halt misappropriation of public mineral deposits. Owen and his deputy trained almost one hundred and fifty assistants at New Harmony, and in September 1839 began the survey. Some six months later he delivered field work, maps and an analytic report to the GLO.
Owen had now made his name as a geologist and was able to attract excellent staff, many of whom later became eminent geologists. His interest in chemistry and his knowledge of natural history, combined with the knowledge of mechanics he had learned at New Lanark, meant that he produced reliable work on a wide range of geological subjects including mineralogy, paleontology, stratigraphy and structure.
He submitted designs for part of the new Smithsonian Institution for which his brother Robert Dale Owen introduced the legislation. He also became secretary to the American Association of Geologists and Naturalists and he hosted Lyell during the latter's visit to New Harmony.
In 1847 Owen was asked to survey land (bought from native Americans) designated as the Chippewa and Lake Superior Land Districts. The area stretched from northeast Iowa and southern Wisconsin to Lake Superior. Over the next five years Owen and his team mapped and analysed 46,000 square miles, at a scale of 1:625,000, and in addition surveyed parts of Minnesota and Iowa and the Nebraska Territory adjacent to the Missouri and White rivers. His report in 1852 included an atlas of maps, and engravings from sketches he and his brother Richard made.
Owen was appointed state geologist of Kentucky in 1854, and for the survey he produced geologic, chemical and economic and soil studies. In 1857 he accepted a commission to do the same for Arkansas. He was made state geologist for Indiana in 1859 but did not undertake any field work, remaining in his new laboratory at New Harmony to complete the Arkansas report.
In 1860, after his health failed when he had another attack of recurrent malaria, he died.
ASSESSMENT: Owen was a brilliant field geologist who produced superb surveys. He was valued above all for his surveys of economic resources.
EXTRA CONNECTIONS: None
ONELINER: D D Owen, American geologist
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
DSB, ANB