Thomas Deye Owings

Owings paid for much of his war effort himself. Stephen F. Austin accepted his offer of up to 1,500 Kentucky volunteers in January 1836, and a Texas agent put $5,000 in a New Orleans bank for him, but by April the agent reported the money spent. Owings later received four Texas land grants, probably as partial repayment. His son Robert had enlisted in Burr Duval's Kentucky company in December 1835 and died at Goliad. In 1850 the census listed Owings, with errors, in a Brenham merchant's household. Two other sons were buried here before him.

What the plaque says

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. The family had met with success as colonial tobacco planters and as partners in the Bourbon Iron Furnace in Kentucky. In 1795, Thomas left his wife and young son in Maryland to go to Kentucky with his brother-in-law, Benedict Van Pradelles, and oversee the furnace operations and other landholdings. Circa 1800, after his first wife's death, Thomas wed Mary Nicholas, daughter of Kentucky governor George Nicholas. By 1810, Thomas 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. He also supplied cannonballs and grapeshot for U.S. troops at the Battle of New Orleans. His former home in Owingsville is now a Kentucky landmark. In support of the Texas Revolution, Owings financed several companies of soldiers. Of the men he sent to Texas in early 1836, approximately 80 of them, including his own son Robert, were massacred at Goliad in March of that year. Owings arrived with 1,500 more men the day after Texas won the Battle of San Jacinto. After the revolution, Owings settled in the Brenham area. He died in October 1853 and was buried beside one of his sons at the Old Masonic Cemetery. His daughter Eliza was later buried here as well. Although he never served as a solder in the revolution, Owings is remembered as a Texas patriot for his support and family sacrifice. (2006)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Independence and Old Baylor Park — 9.7 mi
  A crossroads north of Brenham that was the richest town in Texas when it won Baylor University in 1845, refused the railroad, and lost the college to Waco and Belton in 1886.
• Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site — 18 mi
  The townsite on the Brazos where delegates met in a cold, unfinished hall in March 1836 to declare Texas independent, with Independence Hall rebuilt and Anson Jones's Barrington farm worked as in 1850.
• Star of the Republic Museum — 18 mi
  A star-shaped museum of the Republic of Texas years, 1836 to 1846, built at Washington-on-the-Brazos after a Brenham campaign and opened on March 1, 1970.
• Round Top and Festival Hill — 19 mi
  A German village on the old La Bahía Road, named for a house tower, with an 1867 stone church, a Fourth of July kept since 1851 and a concert hall a pianist built without blueprints.

More markers nearby

• Site of Masonic Academy — 0.9 mi
• Brenham Public Library — 0.9 mi
• First Methodist Church — 1.0 mi
• First Baptist Church — 1.0 mi