Although Owen shared a strong interest in education and social reform with his father, Robert, and older brother, Robert Dale, he trained as a scientist and had a long career as a university professor and geologist. He also served as a military officer during the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War.
Early career In 1828, after the death of his first wife and dissolution of the utopian experiment at New Harmony, Owen traveled for a few years, farmed in
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and lived in
Cincinnati,
Ohio, where he briefly worked in a brewery, before returning to New Harmony in 1836 to operate a steam-powered flour mill and manage a livestock farm.
Scientist on Lake Superior In 1848 Owen began assisting his brother, David Dale Owen, who was appointed as Indiana's first state geologist, in performing geological work in the
Northwest Territory. In the summer of 1849 Owen assisted his brother in conducting a geological survey of northern
Minnesota and the shores of
Lake Superior. Owen's duties primarily consisted of recording atmospheric pressure measurements and making illustrative sketches. Later that year Owen accepted a professorship in natural science at the
Western Military Institute in Kentucky. He remained a member of the school's faculty until 1859 and an owner of the institute with
Bushrod Johnson, who later became a general in the Confederate States Army. During Owen's tenure at the school, it was relocated to
Tennessee and merged with the
University of Nashville. In addition to teaching at the university, Owen published one of his major works,
Key to the Geology of the Globe (1857) and received a Doctor of Medicine degree from the Medical College of Nashville in 1858. Prior to the outbreak of the American Civil War and largely because of his
anti-slavery opinions, Owen resigned his position and sold his financial interest in the Institute in 1858. As a result of his promotion to state geologist, Owen became an
ex officio member of the
Indiana University faculty at
Bloomington, Indiana. and was serving as the state geologist of Indiana when the
American Civil War began in 1861.
American Civil War officer Owen, a pro-Union Democrat, joined the
Union army and served as a lieutenant colonel in the
15th Indiana Infantry Regiment and fought in the battles of
Rich Mountain,
Greenbrier River, and
Cheat Mountain. Owen was promoted to
colonel after the
Battle of Greenbrier River and reenlisted in the
60th Indiana Infantry Regiment, where he remained until December 1863. On February 24, 1862, Colonel Owen was placed in command of 4,000 Confederate prisoners of war at
Camp Morton in Indianapolis,
Indiana. The prison camp regulations that Owen wrote placed much of the disciplinary authority in the hands of the Confederate sergeants. Owen's humane treatment of the prisoners included providing them books and allowing them to form glee clubs, theatrical groups, and sports teams. Owen also created a camp bakery that was staffed by the prisoners. Cost savings gained from the on-site baker provided additional funds to purchase supplies and food for the prisoners. Despite these privileges, Owen was also a disciplinarian who proved to be a capable and vigilant officer. He strictly enforced the restrictions on mail and visitors and only a few prisoners made a successful escape. Many of Camp Morton's prisoners were grateful for the humane treatment they received under Owen's leadership. He also earned the respect of his fellow officers and superiors for the efficient organization of the camp and management of its resources. On May 26, 1862, Owen and his regiment were ordered to active service in Kentucky. Upon learning that Owen and his men would soon be replaced, some of Camp Morton's prisoners petitioned
Indiana governor Oliver P. Morton to have Owen and the 60th Indiana retained for service at the camp, but the request was denied. Owen and his regiment left for
Louisville, Kentucky, on June 20, 1862, then transferred to Lebanon, Kentucky, and engaged in battle position at
Munfordville, Kentucky. When Owen and others from his regiment were captured at
Munfordville in September 1862, Confederate General
Simon Bolivar Buckner personally thanked Owen for his kind treatment of the Camp Morton prisoners. In addition, Owen was allowed to retain his
sidearms. Owen's men were paroled three months later. After the prisoner exchange, Owen returned to active military service in the Union army. During the final months of his military service, Owen led his men through other battles, including
Vicksburg,
Jackson, and
Bayou Bourbeux in 1863. Confident that the Union would win the war, Owen resigned his commission in the Union army at the end of 1863 and returned to civilian life in Indiana. Because Owen continued to serve as Indiana's state geologist, state law mandated that he also serve as the chair of IU's natural science department. In addition to geology, Owen taught, chemistry, language, and "natural philosophy." Owen also sold the university a collection of stones, fossils, and soil that his family had collected. Owen was also active in the local Presbyterian church, where he taught Sunday school classes. A versatile writer, Owen authored articles for professional journals, popular magazines, and newspapers. In the 1860s he published geological surveys of
New Mexico,
Arizona, and
North Carolina. His research interests included the causes of earthquakes and their effect on the formation of the planet. He also studied the Earth's magnetic field. According to Owen, physical geography had a large influence on the course of history and civilization. (This area of study has been labelled
environmental determinism.) Owen was well-respected among the IU faculty and was often called on to advise university president
Cyrus Nutt on faculty appointments. Owen remained on the IU faculty during his two-year tenure as president of Purdue University.
University president After the
U.S. Congress passed the
Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act (1862), Owen worked with IU's President Nutt on a proposal to establish an agricultural college as an affiliate Indiana University. However, the state government decided instead to use the land-grant funds to develop a separate school west of
Lafayette in 1869 that became Purdue University. While remaining a member of the IU faculty, Owen helped plan the new university at West Lafayette. Purdue trustees selected Owen as the school's first president on August 13, 1872, after
William S. Clark of the Massachusetts Agricultural College declined their offer. Owen planned to run Purdue with an equal emphasis on the physical, moral, and intellectual aspects of education. Students who violated rules would be tried by a jury of fellow students, a system that Owen said was successful in European schools. Critics found many of Owen's initiatives to be unnecessary and his overall plan to be inadequate. The trustees disagreed with Owen's strong emphasis on agriculture over other academic fields, as well as his desire for more comfortable dormitories and more picturesque trees on the campus. As a result of these disagreements, Owen resigned on March 1, 1874, and was succeeded by Indianapolis educator
Abraham C. Shortridge. During Owen's nearly two-year presidency, he made four trips to Lafayette and never drew a salary. Although ground had been broken on Purdue's first buildings and the university began to hire instructors, Owen resigned before its first regular semester of classes were in session. (The first informal classes were held in March 1874, after Owen had resigned, to meet a legislative deadline; the first official semester began in September.) After his resignation as the university's president, Owen resumed teaching full-time at Indiana University and served as curator of IU's museum on the Bloomington campus. ==Later years==