John Owen

  General Notes:

From ancestry.com Owen Family Tree

Family Members
Parents
Humphrey Owen
1804 \endash 1861
Sarah Higginbotham
1800 \endash 1868


Spouse & Children
Elizabeth Aitkin
1836 \endash 1866
George Humphrey Owen
1859 \endash 1859
Janet Sarah Owen
1860 \endash 1931
Helen Owen
1861 \endash 1940
George Humphret Owen
1863 \endash 1863
Elizabeth Owen
1865 \endash 1865

Spouse & Children
Amelia Elizabeth Nott
1840 \endash 1907
John Herbert Owen
1868 \endash 1945
Mabel Owen
1870 \endash 1941
Charles Frederick Owen
1872 \endash 1944
Ernest Owen
1874 \endash 1920
Horace Owen
1876 \endash 1943
Harry Humphrey Owen
1882 \endash 1954

  Chronology:

MISC: Arrival in Victoria, Cal 1855. ⁴ Illustrated Australian News (Melbourne, Vic. : 1876 - 1889), Wednesday 22 February 1882, page 18, 19
Arrived in Victoria from NSW in 1855 and started business with G Heard in Elizabeth Street

Possible:
Victoria, Australia, Assisted and Unassisted Passenger Lists, 1839\endash 1923 about John Owen
Name:John Owen
Estimated Birth Year:abt 1830
Age:24
Arrival Date:Jan 1854
Arrival Port:Melbourne and Sydney, Australia
Departure Port:Liverpool
Ship:Merlin
Nationality:English

MISC: Ended connection to Owen, Dudgeon & Arnell, 23 Sep 1873. ⁵
The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1956) Wednesday 24 September 1873 Supplement: The Argus Supplement p 2 Advertising
NOTICE is hereby given, that the PARTNERSHIP
for some time past carried on by the undersigned
John Owen, John Dudgeon, and Charles Carty Arnell,
at Melbourne, in the trade or business of tobacco and
snuff manufacturers under the style or firm of
"OWEN, DUDGEON, and ARNELL," was this day
DISSOLVED by mutual consent.
The said John Dudgeon and Charles Cirty ArnellFix this text
will discharge all debts and receive all credits on
account of the said partnership concern.
As witness our hands this twenty-third day of Sep-
tember,1873.
JOHN OWEN
JOHN DUDGEON
CHARLES CARTY ARNELL
Witness to the ssigning hereof by the said John
Owen, John Dudgeon, and Charles Carty Arnell - Geo.
H. Oakley, clerk to A. W. Smalc, solicitor, Mel-
bourne.
In reference to the above we beg to notify that the
business will he carried on by the undersigned, who
most respectfully solicit a continuance of favours as
hitherto enjoyed by the old firm.
DUDGEON and ARNELL.
September 23,1873.



The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1956) Thursday 7 September 1876 p 4 Advertising
PUBLIC NOTICE-To avoid any misunderstanding
in future, we beg to inform the public that Mr.
JOHN OWEN has NOT been CONNECTED in any
way with our firm since 1873.
DUDGEON and ARNELL, Tobacco Manufacturers,
125,127, and 129 Lonsdale-street west.

He worked as a Managing Director from 1876 to 1878 and resided at 80 Lonsdale Street East, Melbourne. ⁶
The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1956) Thursday 14 June 1877 p 8 Advertising
The SUMMER TURNOUT of the company's brands
EUREKA and I X L is NOW READY, in splendid
order.Fix this text
VIRGINIAN TOBACCO COMPANY, 80 Lonsdale
street east, opposite Hospital
JOHN OWEN, Managing Director

MISC: 1876. THE VIRGINIAN TOBACCO COMPANY'S
MANUFACTORY. MELBOURNE.Fix this text
THE Virginian Tobacco Manufacturing Company's premises
in Lonsdale-street east, opposite to the Melbourne Hospital,
which form the subject of a series of illustrations, are the
locale of a very important industry. The building, which,
was erected some years since for a very different purpose,
has an area of 200 feet by GO feet, and is lighted principally
from the roof. The ventilation of the premises is carefully
attended to, and thus the employes are not subjected to the
dangerous effects of a sudden change of temperature when
leaving the factory, as is too frequently the case in establish-
ments of a like character. Passing into the immense room
the visitor linds large piles of the fragrant weed, as imported
from America, Turkey, and other tobacco-growing countries.
The leaf tobacco is piled up in heaps several feet high, as
much as from 80 to 100 tons of this raw material being
frequently stacked there. To develop the nicotine in the
leaf a portion has to be damped, and put through what is
technically known as the sweating process ; and the work
required for the manipulation of the raw material at this
stage of the process is performed by the youngest boys
employed. The next step is to remove the stalk from the
centre of the leaf, and this is effected by boys, each of whom
sits in a separate compartment, or bin, with his heaps of
leaves, and two receptacles, one for the stalks, and the other
for the useful part of the leaves. The picked leaf is next
transferred to the skilled workmen, who make it up into
small rolls, which by subsequent processes will become the
figs or cakes in which it passes into the hands of the public.
These workmou stand at a double rauge of tables partitioned
off from each other. Taking a portion of the smaller pieces
of the leaf the workman forms it into a roll, which is
enveloped in the larger broad pieces. These rolls require
considerable skill aud judgment iu their formation, as the
material for each is not weighed, and yet it is essential that
each should contain sufficient tobacco to make the average
weight of the cake or piece of the size that is being made.
It is hardly necessary to state that the goods manufactured
embrace numerous varieties both of quality aud kind, to
suit the various tastes of the consumers ; but it must be
observed that, although goods of the highest class are manu-
factured, those of very low or inferior quality are not pro-
duced. In the premises there are numerous machines used
for different parts of the manufacture, as, for instance, a
spinning machine to turn out those ropes of tobacco known
as pigtail, the delight of tobacco chewers. The cost of the
I whole, including the horizontal steam engine, has been about
£0000. At present there are 132 men and boys employed,
the older hands having been trained under Mr. O wen, the
managing director of the company, under whose active and
untiring supervision every part of the numerous processes
is continually passing. The employes are chiefly paid by
results, and earn good wages, proportioned, of course, to
their expertness and attention to work.

Death: 1882. By tho death of Mr. John Owen another old
colonist has passed away. Tho deceased was
an old Victorian, having arrived in Melbourne
from Sydney in 1S55. In that j'car ho started
business as a tobacco manufacturer with Mr.
Heard, in Elizabeth-street, and, after uiider
! going much opposition, succeeded in catabliali
i ing the industry. Ho waa, therefore, tho first
successful manufacturer of tobacco in tlio
colony. The, firm had developed in 1S73,
when it was known aa Owon, Dudgeon and
Amell. In that year Mr. Owun, under medical
advice, retired from tho business. He then
became actively connected with the largo con
fectionery business now known as tho Victoriau
Confectionery Cornpany. In 1S75, however,
ho joined the Virginian Tobacco Company as
? managing 2'artner. This company was in July
last amalgamated with the Messrs. Cameron
Brothers nnd Company (Limited) trading under
that jiameC Of this company Mr. Owen wns
the manager and director, and continued to act
until a few days before his death, As a com- '?
missioner of the Melbourne International Ex
hibition, Mr. Owen showed himself as ener
getic and zealous in the interests of the public
and the colony as he had always been in his
own business. He was born and brought up
in Liverpool, and waa about 53 years oE ago
j His death waa certainly an unexpected one.
I Although he had been ailing slightly for a fow
days previously, his friends had no idea that
his life was in danger.

John married Elizabeth Aitken, daughter of George Aitken and Unknown, in 1858 in Victoria.¹ (Elizabeth Aitken was born Cal 1836 and died in 1866 in Victoria ⁷.)

John next married Amelia Elizabeth Nott in 1867 in Victoria.² (Amelia Elizabeth Nott was born in 1840 in St Martins in the Field, Middlesex ( and died in 1907 in Malvern, Melbourne.)