David Dale Owen (24 June 1807 – 13 November 1860) was a prominent American geologist who conducted the first geological surveys of Indiana, Kentucky, Arkansas, Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota. Owen served as the first state geologist for three states: Kentucky (1854–57), Arkansas (1857–59), and Indiana (1837–39 and 1859–60). His first geological work was as an assistant mapping the geology of Tennessee in 1836. In addition, Owen was appointed as a U.S. geologist in 1839 and led federal surveys of Iowa, Wisconsin, and northern Illinois (1839–40) and in the Upper Midwest (1847–1851). Owen's greatest legacy lies in the eleven volumes of published reports from his state and federal geological surveys, which increased the general knowledge and understanding of American geology, the structural geology and paleontology of the United States, and the mineral wealth of the Midwestern states. Owen's most significant contribution to the field of geology was identifying and naming major geological formations of the Mississippi River Valley and placing them in relative position on a geological timeline. He also helped to standardize the nomenclature of geological structures in the Midwest.
David Dale was the third surviving son of Robert Owen, a Welsh-born socialist reformer who established a social experiment at New Harmony, Indiana. The experiment failed within few years, but David Dale and his three brothers, Robert Dale Owen, William, and Richard Dale Owen, as well as their sister, Jane Dale Owen Fauntleroy, established a permanent home at New Harmony. Owen amassed an extensive personal collection of natural history specimens at New Harmony, as well as a geological laboratory and museum that served as the headquarters of the U.S. Geological Survey until 1856. In addition to his geological survey work, Owen had a minor role in the preliminary design of the Smithsonian Institution Building in Washington, D.C., and recommended the distinctive, dark-red Seneca Creek sandstone that was used in its construction.
Early life and education David Dale Owen was born in Lanarkshire, Scotland, on 24 June 1807, to Ann (or Anne) Caroline Dale and Robert Owen. His mother was the daughter of David Dale, a wealthy Scottish textile manufacturer. His Welsh-born father, a part-owner and manager of the New Lanark Mills at New Lanark, Scotland, was a noted socialist reformer and philanthropist who established experimental utopian communities in the United States and the United Kingdom. David Dale, who was named for his maternal grandfather and called Dale, was the fourth son of the family's eight children; the eldest son died in infancy. His six surviving siblings (three brothers and three sisters) were Robert Dale, William, Ann (or Anne) Caroline, Jane Dale, Richard, and Mary.Estabrook, pp. 72, 80, 83.
Owen grew up at Braxfield House, the Owen family's estate in Lanarkshire. Like his brothers, Owen was privately tutored at home before he was sent as a teenager to Philipp Emanuel von Fellenberg's school at Hofwyl, Switzerland. While attending the Swiss school for three years, Owen was exposed to Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi's method of education. He received a broad education, which included instruction in chemistry and natural history.Leopold, p. 51.Estabrook, pp. 72, 88.Hendrickson, David Dale Owen, pp. 7–8. David and his brother, Richard, returned to Scotland in 1826 and continued their education in science under Andrew Ure at the Andersonian Institute at Glasgow.Hendrickson, David Dale Owen, p. 11.
In 1827, when Owen was about twenty years old, he sailed for America with his father, Robert, and two of his brothers, Robert Dale and Richard. After the party arrived in New York City in January 1828, David immediately went to New Harmony, Indiana, to live at the experimental socialistic community his father has established in 1825. Robert Owen returned to the United Kingdom, but his four surviving sons, David, Robert Dale, William, and Richard, along with their sister, Jane, became residents of the Owenite community at New Harmony and remained in Indiana, even after the social experiment failed in the late 1820s.Estabrook, p. 88. Although he was frequently absent while pursuing his education and for his professional work, David Dale Owen established a permanent residence and a laboratory in New Harmony.Leopold, p. 72.Hendrickson, David Dale Owen, pp. 15–16.
In 1830 he spent a year painting and drawing in New York City, where his brother, Robert Dale Owen, was living at the time, and the next two years in London. Owen studied science at University of London, where he specialized in chemistry and geology, and returned to the United States in 1833. He began studying medicine at the Ohio Medical College in Cincinnati in 1835 and earned a medical degree from the college in 1837. Owen never established a medical practice. Instead, he returned to New Harmony, Indiana, in 1837 to begin his career as a natural scientist.Elliott, p. 342.Hendrickson, David Dale Owen, p. 23.
In addition to his formal training in science and medicine, it is likely that Owen became interested in geology because of his father's business partnership with geologist William Maclure, a well-known educator and scientist who served as president of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia from 1817 to 1840, and Gerhard Troost, a Dutch geologist, mineralogist, zoologist, and chemist. Both men arrived at New Harmony in 1825.
Marriage and family Owen married Caroline Neef (1815–1854), a daughter of New Harmony residents Louise and Joseph Neef, in a triple ceremony on 23 March 1837. Owen's brother, Richard, married Caroline's sister, Anne, and his brother, William, married Mary Bolton in the same ceremony.Elliott, pp. 342, 344.Estabrook, pp. 89–90, 95.
David and Caroline Owen had four children: Alfred D. (b. 1841), Anna (1843–1912), William H. (1847–1896), and Nina Dale (1849–1911).Estabrook, pp. 90–91, 94.Hendrickson, David Dale Owen, p. 10. Owen's granddaughter, Caroline Dale (Parke) Snedeker (b. 1871), was the daughter of Nina Dale (Owen) and Charles Parke and the author of The Coward of Thermopylae, and Seth Way.Estabrook, p. 91–92.
Career From 1837 to his death in 1860, Owen conducted geological surveys in the Midwestern United States, including the first geological surveys of Indiana, Kentucky, Arkansas, Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota. Through this work he established himself as a leading authority on the region's geology. Owen became the first state geologist of three states: Kentucky (1854–57), Arkansas (1857–59), and Indiana (1837–39 and 1850–60). He also served as a federal geologist for the U.S. Geological Survey.
Early geological surveys Owen's first geological work occurred in 1836 as an assistant mapping the geology of Tennessee with Gerald Troost, a friend from New Harmony.Rokicki, p. 54.
In 1837 the Indiana General Assembly commissioned Owen to conduct the first geological survey of the state. In March 1837 Indiana governor Noah Noble appointed him as the first state geologist of Indiana. For his geological services Owen earned a salary of $1,500 per year and a $250 expense allowance.Hendrickson, David Dale Owen, p. 27. During the first year of the survey, Owen traveled about a thousand miles on horseback to examine the state's geology, including its stone and coal resources. Owen submitted two reports of this initial survey to the state legislature. These early reports served as the basis for the research of other Indiana state geologists who succeeded him. In March 1838 Owen was reappointed for another year of survey research in the state.Hendrickson, "David Dale Owen and Indiana's First Geological Survey," pp. 5–10, 13.
Federal and state geologist In July 1839 Owen received an appointment as the U.S. geologist. In this role he led federal surveys from 1839 to 1840 and from 1847 to 1851 of the Midwestern United States, which included Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and part of northern Illinois. His reports for these pioneering surveys, in addition to other surveys he made before his death in 1860, established his reputation as one of the era's leading experts on the geology of the Middle West.Hendrickson, David Dale Owen, pp. 41–43, 48–50, 58, 84–86.
From 1839 to 1840 Owen conducted surveys in Iowa, Wisconsin, and northern Illinois. In 1845 he was appointed to survey the Chippewa Land District in the Upper Mississippi River Valley. He also served as the director of a geological expedition in Wisconsin and Iowa in 1847Leopold, p. 235.Hendrickson, David Dale Owen, pp. 85–87. and began a three-year geological survey of Minnesota in 1849.Estabrook, pp. 88–89. The surveys of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota, as well as the subsequent publication of the related reports, were Owen's major achievements and the high point of his career.Hendrickson, David Dale Owen, pp. 93, 107.
The final six years of Owen's life (1854–60), were especially busy. He served as the state geologist for Kentucky (1854–57), Arkansas (1857–59), and returned to Indiana (1859–60) to supervise geological surveys for each of these states.Hendrickson, David Dale Owen, pp. 116, 128. Because the Kentucky and Arkansas surveys were still underway, Owen's brother, Richard, conducted most of the fieldwork for the Indiana survey.Kimberling, "David Dale Owen and Joseph Granville Norwood," p. 16.
Smithsonian Institution contributions In addition to his geological survey work, Owen had a minor role in the preliminary design of the Smithsonian Institution Building in Washington, D.C. In 1846 he also recommended the Seneca Quarry's distinctive, dark-red Seneca Creek sandstone that was used in its construction. The following year Owen identified a quarry at Bull Run, twenty-three miles from nation's capital, that provided the stone for the project.Hendrickson, David Dale Owen, pp. 80–82.
David Owen and architect Robert Mills developed preliminary plans for the Smithsonian Institution's new building while his brother, U.S. Congressman Robert Dale Owen, introduced and helped to secure passage of the bill that founded the Smithsonian Institution in 1846, served on the Institution's first Board of Regents, and chaired its Building Committee. Although Owen's early drawings were not the final choice for the project, they influenced the designs that other architects developed. Owen also donated his services as a consultant without compensation to the Institution's Board of Regents and helped architect James Renwick Jr., whose design was selected for the building, prepare drawings for its chemistry department.Leopold, pp. 231–33.
Natural history laboratory and specimen collection In addition to his work in the field, Owen established a geological laboratory and museum at New Harmony. The laboratory served as the headquarters of the U.S. Geological Survey until 1856, when the federal survey's headquarters were relocated to the newly completed Smithsonian Institution Building in Washington, D.C.Leopold, p. 253.