MR. JOHN LLOYD OWENS, MINNEAPOLIS, HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA.
Son of Owen and Jane Owens, born at Pen Amnan, Dolwyddelen, Carnarvonshire, Wales, August 10, 1832.His mother was a sister of the eminent diviner, David Jones, John Jones (Talysarnau), and William Jones, Welsh Prairie, Wisconsin, and the family can be traced back through Hedd Molwynog to Llewfrodedd Farchog in the tenth century.
In 1846 he came with his parents to Welsh Prairie, Wisconsin, and in 1856 married Miss Winnie Roberts, of Racine.
Soon after be started in business at Cambria, Wisconsin, where he resided for years. While there he invented the self rake reapers in 1870, and a harvester in 1871 known afterwards as the Keterley Harvester, to which was given the medal at the Centennial Exposition in 1876. In July, 1878, Mr. Owens went to Minneapolis as inventor for the Minneapolis Harvester Company and soon was given, in addition, the superintendency of all the woodwork, having hundreds of men under his supervision.
He remained with the company for seven years and, after severing his connection, invented the Owens Fanning Mill, which received the first award at the Columbian Exposition in 1893, and which marks a new departure in separating and cleaning all kinds of grain. He is the president of the J. L. Owens Company which has manufactured and placed on the market over 8,000 of these mills in a single year. He has several other valuable patterns and at present has nearly completed a machine to cut and thrash the grain simultaneously, which he expects to place on the market in the near future.
Among the Welsh people of Minneapolis he is one of the oldest settlers and has been directly or indirectly instrumental in bringing many to the city.
He was elected deacon in the Welsh church at Cambria, Wisconsin, and has served in that capacity in the Minneapolis church since its organization, and has been the president of the board of trustees from the beginning.