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Coastal Georgia Officers of the Law
Police, Sheriff, etc.
The following listing was taken from public records and is by no means a
complete or official record of all officers of the law for Coastal Georgia.
If you know your ancestor served on the force and want them listed here, please
send me their name, the date they became an officer, the source for your
information (has to be something other than family say-so), and the place where
they served.
John W. Owens & Family
John W. Owens
was born sometime in March 1844 in Ireland to Patrick Owens &
Rosanna Connally. He married sometime before 1867 to Catherine
Matilda Robson and together they had at least seven children while
living in McIntosh County. John worked hard all his life as a
laborer and carpenter who ultimately moved to Glynn County where he died
22 May 1917.
John served his state during the Civil War, enlisting
in the 25th GA Co. I on 9 August 1861 from Chatham County.
Later in 1861 he was in Company D until he was captured on 7 December
1864 in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. His Confederate pension application
states he had lived in Georgia since he was 7 years old, suggesting he
immigrated around 1851 with his parents and siblings; the family was
enumerated in the 1860 McIntosh County census. This document also
states that he enlisted in both companies in August as part of the Bryan
Guard.
By 1890 the family had moved to Brunswick where John
continued working as a carpenter. The 1898 city directory tells us that
John had become a policeman but this apparently was a short lived
career because by 1900 he was a bookkeeper.
Their father apparently instilled in his children a respect
for the law and authority because all three of his sons served Brunswick
in some capacity of the law.
Walter Thaddeus Owens was born 7 August 1870 and died
28 December 1942; he married Johanna L. Barrett sometime before
1896 and had at least five children. According to the Brunswick city
directories, Walter first worked as an engineer at the brewery
and lived at 1205 S. Wolf Street.
George Mitchell Owens was born 1 June 1872 and died
in office as Sheriff of Glynn County on 28 November 1947. On 31 May
1903 in Pierce County, George married Margaret Sophronia Marr
and together had at least seven children; the first four were sons and
the last three were daughters.
George served as deputy sheriff from at least 1910
until 1935 when the current sheriff, Robert S. Pyles, died in
office. George was elected interim sheriff to serve until an
election could be held to fill the office. As part of his campaign
efforts, George wrote a letter to the voters of Glynn County
expressing his regrets that he could not be at the polls on Election Day
due to his duties as interim sheriff. In his letter he let the voters
know, one last time, that he had 25 years experience in the office
already as deputy which qualified him beyond measure to be sheriff.
He was elected to office and served until his death in 1947
when his deputy sheriff, and son, Mitchell Edward Owens took the
office until an election was held in which he won the office and retired
from on 1 January 1969 when his brother, and former deputy sheriff,
Harry William Owens was elected to office to serve until his death.
Prior to his political life, George worked in a meat
market with his brother Robert Eugene Owens who also entered the
office of the law by becoming a police officer. By 1903 Robert
was chief and in 1901 their other brother, Walter Thaddeus Owens,
was county superintendent of prisons. Walter didn’t keep this
position long according to the city directory of 1905 in which he was
listed as a shipping clerk with the Lott-Lewis Company and by 1912 he
was a foreman on the Turtle River dock.
The 1905 and 1908 directories also shows us that George
was a policeman before he was a deputy sheriff and that Robert
was assistant chief of police; by 1912 he was back to being a grocer.
Robert’s obituary states that he served only one year as chief of
police but several years as the assistant.
Mitchell E. Owens was born 2 December 1904, died 3
February 1973, and married Ila Peggy Burns on 9 July 1927 in
Brunswick. He was the father of six children and served as his father’s
chief deputy until his father’s death when he took the office of sheriff
until an election could be held to fill the office. Mitchell is
the only one of the Owens’ that actually retired from duty. One
of his sons, James Barry Owens, may have been the Jekyll Island
Fire Chief in 1966 when a terrible murder-suicide occurred.
Harry W. Owens was born 19 February 1911, died 4
February 1976, and married Audrey Riddle. He was the father of
six children and served as his brother’s deputy chief taking office of
sheriff in 1969 until his death. A few years before his election, the
Owens men were part of an investigation that involved the two
brothers and Mitchell’s son as fire chief when a man on Jekyll
Island murdered his wife and then later in his jail cell hung himself.
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