Owen, General Allison

Submitted by Mike Miller

General Allison Owen. It was under Colonel Allison Owen that the historic Washington artillery of New Orleans was mustered into the national army for service in the World war during 1917. For some years Colonel Owen had been active in this organization, and since the war has given much time to military affairs as a hobby, and on July 12, 1924, was promoted to the rank of brigadier general, commanding the Fifty-sixth Field Artillery Brigade. During 1924 he attended the Army War College at Washington, taking the G2 course.

General Owen, who has a distinguished record in his profession as an architect, was born at New Orleans, December 29, 1869. His ancestry includes some very prominent names. His paternal grandfather, Allison Owen, who came from Brunswick, Maine, married Caroline Miller in Cincinnati. Her father, Judge William Miller, who was born in Pennsylvania, in 1762, married Ursula Meuillon, daughter of Dr. Ennemond Meuillon, of Alexandria, Louisiana, and Jeannette Poiret, of Opelousas, Louisiana. Judge William Miller was commissioned to receive the transfer of Post Rapides, Louisiana, from his father who represented same at the time of the Louisiana purchase. William Miller Owen, father of General Owen, was a lieutenant colonel, of field artillery in the Confederate army, and adjutant of the Washington artillery at New Orleans. He was also inspector general of the Louisiana National Guard with the rank of brigadier general, and the. author of "in and Battle with the Washington Artillery." William Miller Owen married Caroline Amanda Zacharie, daughter of James Waters and Caroline (Deare) Zacharie, her father being a New Orleans merchant, while her grand father, Marie Etienne Zacharie, of Baltimore, was the first cashier of the Louisiana Bank of New Orleans. This pioneer banker married Anne Waters.

Allison Owen was educated in the public schools of New Orleans, in Tulane University, and prepared himself technically for his chosen calling in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. For about thirty years he has been identified with a large volume of important Practice as an architect, being member of the firm Diboll & Owen, architects, with offices in the Interstate Bank Building. He has specialized in the building of churches, colleges and other public structures. Some of the important examples of his work include the New Orleans Public Library, Canal-Louisiana Bank and Office Building, Municipal Office Building, Metropolitan Bank and Office Building, Prytania Street Presbyterian Church, Notre Dame Seminary at New Orleans, Westminster Congregational Church at Kansas City; St. Joseph's Church at Mobile, and many other church and school structures in New Orleans and other cities of the south. He is a member of the Board of Architects for Loyola College; is a past president of the Louisiana Architects' Association, a member of the Louisiana Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, and has been lecturer on architectural history at Tulane University. For a number of years he was editor of "Architectural Art and Its Allies of New Orleans," and has contributed many' articles on architectural subjects to other publications.

As a young man he joined the Washington Artillery, rising to the rank of captain and adjutant, then to major and served with the rank of major from July, 1916, to February, 1917, when the regiment was on the Mexican border. In July, 1917, he became lieutenant colonel, and when the Washington artillery was mustered into the national army, becoming the 141st Artillery, he became colonel. He took special courses in the artillery schools at Fort Sam Houston, Fort Sill and Fort Riley, and while overseas was with the field artillery forces at Coetquidan, France, remaining in France until April, 1919. General Owen served in 1922 as commander of the Fourth Corps Area military order of the World war, and is now a member of the general staff of that organization. He also belongs to the American Legion.

He is vice-president of the Aetna Homestead Association; has been president since 1921 of the New Orleans Round Table Club; is a member of the Pickwick Club, the Lions Club (elected its president December 23, 1924), the Louisiana Historical Society, the Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Tennessee, and a prominent layman in the Catholic Church. He is a fourth degree Knight of Columbus. General Owen is vice-president of the City Planning and Zoning Commission, president of the Lee Circle Commission, and vice-president of the City Parking Commission.

He married at New Orleans, September 16, 1896, Miss Blanche Pothier, daughter of Louis Benjamin and Emelia (Carriere) Pothier. Four children were born to their marriage: William Miller, Cecile Violett, Allison, and Louis Benjamin. Louis Benjamin died in November, 1921, at the age of six years. William Miller Owen, while serving as a lieutenant of artillery, died March 14, 1919, and after his death his wife bore a daughter, William Miller III.

A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), p. 14, by Henry E. Chambers. Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1