University of the Pacific - Naranjado Yearbook (Stockton, CA)

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Qiographioal. 96- REV. ISAAC OXN'15N was born in the State of Vermont in the year 1809 and raised in the woods of Indiana. During his early life he was fond of hunting, paying more attention to that than to his education. His educa- tional advantages were extremely limited, but his thirst for learning was such that he acquired a critical knowledge of Greek after his admission to the conference, being assisted somewhat by the professors of the college near which he was stationed. He was for four years the financial agent of the Indiana Asbury University, and during his connection as such raised an endowment fund of fIO0,000, which in those times was vastly more diffi- cult than at present. For his self education and success the degree of D. D. was conferred upon him by the college with which he had been con- nected. At the age of forty he crossed the plains, arriving at Sacramento in the summer of ,4Q, whither he was sent by the Indiana University. With him arrived also Wm. Taylor, now Bishop Taylor, who came from the Baltimore Conference. In the fall of ,4Q he was appointed by the Oregon Conference, which then included all of California, to take the circuit of Sacramento, Coloma and Stockton, traveling between these points and preaching the Gospel. In 1850 he was appointed Presiding Elder of the California District. For the first year's work he received just 31,624 with Which to provide for a family and pay traveling expenses. His diary shows that at one time when he had no salary at all he had subscribed 35 per month to the support of one church and 35 per quarter to pay the expenses of a preacher in another church. Late in 1849 he preached in San jose, and in October of 1850 was Presiding Elder of the first quarterly conference held in Santa Clara, then the principal town of the valley. In 1850 or ' 51 he built the First Methodist Episcopal Church in San jose, and in 1865 he was the Presiding Elder of the San Francisco District. Isaac Owen died in 1866, being fifty-seven years of age. The direct cause of his death was a splinter in the palm- of his hand. He was buried in the Santa Clara Meth- odist Cemetery, where a monument was reared to his name and the cause of Methodism, by contributions from friends and relatives. He left three sons and one daughter. His old home and headquarters while he was in active service, is situated about a mile and a half from Santa Clara, at the intersec- 5011 of the Los Gatos and Stevens Creek roads. His widow is at present II

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5k I . X'l'HlQR IS.-X.EXCf OWEN FOUNDER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF THE PACIFIC

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living in Santa Clara, feeble in health and advanced in age. Father Owen, as we are wont to call him, was an energetic, tireless man, who undertook anything to see it brought to an end. He was somewhat humorous at times and had an agreeable, nervous twinkle in his eye, which he used to good advantage, when relating a story. As is apparent, Father Owen's great work was in laying the foundations of Methodism on the Pacific Coast, where he labored with tireless zeal, exhaustless energy and unwavering faith, evidences of which are the large churches spread here and there over the Golden State, well organized Conferences, and finally but not least in im- portance, the University for which we are all so thankful. No man was more loyal to his church and his country, in the dark days of both, than Father Gwen. The monument reared over his body stands, a living testi- mony of the loving hands of those who knew him while living. He died, after giving thirty-two years of uninterrupted labor to the itinerant work. Such was the character of one of the founders of our University, a man who walked and talked with God. How wisely he laid the foundations of Methodism in our midst, let the prosperous state of the work to-day testify, the full worth of the work accomplished by those preaching tours up and down the coast eternity alone will reveal. I2