Rev. Wade Owens

The Rev. Wade Owens of Opelika, Alabama, was born in 1863 at Loachapoka and just missed slavery, but he said he had heard his family talk about it so much that he felt as if he had lived it. His parents, Wade and Hannah Owens, came from Virginia to the "Jenks Quarters" on Berry Owens's place, where two or three hundred people were enslaved. His siblings included Nettie, Chance, Anderson and Iowa. As a child he drove up the cows, wore only a long shirt, and thought his brass-toed brogans were the prettiest things he ever saw.

His father drove the carriage. The overseer, Bean Boddy, was "the meanest man God ever put life in." He allowed no fires however cold the work, set dogs on anyone who fell behind and nearly beat people to death, until the enslaver ran him off. The plantation had its own jail for runaways. Wade's father had been sold for $160, and his father picked the banjo at Saturday-night frolics, where a pot was turned upside down on the floor to hold in the sound. His father went to war with the young master and stayed until the young man was killed.

Wade grew up to become a Baptist minister in Opelika.