Thomas Deye Owings

Thomas Deye Owings was born to John Cockey and Colegate Dye Owings on March 7, 1776, at Cockeysville, a suburb of Baltimore, Maryland. His family succeeded as colonial tobacco planters and as partners in the Bourbon Iron Furnace in Kentucky. In 1795, he left his wife and young son in Maryland and went to Kentucky with his brother-in-law, Benedict Van Pradelles, to oversee the furnace operations and other landholdings. Around 1800, after his first wife’s death, he married Mary Nicholas, daughter of Kentucky governor George Nicholas. By 1810, he was sole owner of the Bourbon Iron Works and involved in other businesses. To ship his products, he built the Iron Road from Owingsville, the Bath County seat he founded, to Lexington. Commissioned a colonel in the War of 1812, he led the 28th U.S. Infantry Regiment and supplied cannonballs and grapeshot for U.S. troops at the Battle of New Orleans. In support of the Texas Revolution, he financed several companies of soldiers. Of the men he sent to Texas in early 1836, about 80, including his son Robert, were massacred at Goliad in March that year. He arrived with 1,500 more men the day after Texas won the Battle of San Jacinto. After the revolution, he settled in the Brenham area. He died in October 1853 and was buried beside one of his sons at the Old Masonic Cemetery, where his daughter Eliza was later buried as well. Although he never served as a soldier in the revolution, he is remembered as a Texas patriot for his support and family sacrifice.

Brenham, Texas · United States