Owen, Whyte G.

Submitted by Mike Miller

Whyte Glendora Owen, M. D. White Castle, La. In the year 1757 the good ship "Essex," "bearing Goronwy Owen and his fortunes," breasted the billows of the broad Atlantic bound for the colony of Virginia. His "fortunes" consisted of a commission from the crown of England as professor in the college named for their "gracious majesties"--William and Mary. Of him we may say that he was originally from Wales, a graduate of the famed University of Oxford, and priest in the established church. He was also a poet of no mean ability, as is attested by a stately monument lately erected at Llanfair, in commemoration of his contributions to Welsh literature and song. He espoused Joanna Simmons, of Virginia, and became the father of one son, Richard B., whose eldest son, William E., settled in Tennessee and there married Phereby, daughter of Judge Robert Whyte, of Nashville. Their only son, the subject of this present sketch, was born on August 26, 1858, and the following year the family removed to Iberville parish, La., where he passed his boyhood. In 1871 he entered the Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge, and attained a certificate of distinction in his studies each of the two sessions of his stay at that institution. In 1873 he matriculated at Centenary college, Louisiana, where he graduated with the degree of A. B. in 1876. Shortly afterward he was called to fill a chair in the Military institute at Jackson, Miss., where he remained for one year. At the expiration of the session he resigned his position to engage in the more congenial occupation of the study of medicine, at the Tulane university, of Louisiana, to which he devoted his attention for three years, and during the latter part of this time was a resident student at the great Charity hospital, of New Orleans, La. On March 20, 1880, together with sixty-five other young men, he received his diploma as doctor of medicine, and at once located near White Castle in the parish of Iberville, La, where he soon established a successful and lucrative practice. In November, 1883, Dr. Owen was united in the holy bonds of matrimony to Jennie, the accomplished daughter of Col. James S. Tuttle, a prominent sugar planter of Iberville. This union has been blessed with three children: Whyte G., who died in infancy, James Tuttle and Glendower Owen, aged respectively five and one years, both of whom are remarkably bright boys and who gladden the home and hearts of their parents. In addition to meeting the demands of an extensive practice, Dr. Owen finds time to take an active interest in the advancement of his profession, being an honored member of the Louisiana Medical society, and a member of important committees in the same.

Biographical and Historical Memoires of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 294-295. Published by the Goodspeed Publishing Company, Chicago, 1892.