Richard Lemon Owings

Richard Lemon Owings (1812–1902), more commonly known as Richard Owens or Dick Owens, was a pioneer of the American West who played an important role in John C. Fremont's third expedition to the Great Basin and California.

Owings is well known as a frequent companion and close friend of Kit Carson. He worked as a trapper prior to joining Fremont's Company. Fremont named the Owens Valley, Owens River, and Owens Lake in Eastern California all after him, even though Owings never visited any of them.

Biography

Early life Owings was born in Owings Mills, Maryland (near Baltimore) on October 14, 1812. The family relocated to the "wooded hills" of Zanesville, Ohio, where Owings was primarily raised. The incident was notably omitted from Carson's memoirs, as he "may have preferred not to remember an occasion when they were on opposite sides and might have shot each other, and which did not reflect well on Owens." The two became close friends and were frequent companions over the following decade.

Carson and other "mountain men" invariably called Owings by the name "Dick Owens". Carson had served Fremont as a guide on his earlier expeditions and was highly trusted by him.

Fremont would later write of Owings in his memoirs: "That Owens was a good man it is enough to say that he and Carson were friends. Cool, brave, and of good judgment; a good hunter and good shot; experienced in mountain life; he was an acquisition, and proved valuable throughout the campaign." Fremont continued that Owings was equal in "courage to [Kit Carson and Alexis Godey], and in coolness equal to Godey, had the coup-d'œil of a chess player, covering the whole field with a glance that sees the best move. His dark-hazel eye was the marked feature of his face, large and flat and far-sighted." In 1854, married Emily Miller, who was 25 years his junior. He and Emily had four sons.

He moved to Iowa during the Civil War and then to Circleville, Kansas, in 1872. A newspaper profile written on Owings in March 1902 noted that "barring the fact that his hearing is somewhat impaired, the old pioneer is in good physical condition." He died at Circleville on June 11, 1902, aged 89.