A. W. Owen (1820-1864) was born in Greene County, Georgia, to Benjamin Owen (1787-?) and Ruth "Ruthy" Riley Owen (1790-?). In 1846 he became a schoolteacher at Mt. Zion School in Pike County, Georgia. In 1852 he married Martha Margaret Jones Orr (1836-1891) and they had one child, Emily Jane Owen (1853-1854). Owen taught at various schools throughout Georgia before settling at the Holland Free School in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1853. In addition to teaching, he was a candidate of the American Party (also known as the Know-Nothing Party) for Atlanta City Council in the 1855 election. After the start of the Civil War in 1861, he enlisted in the 2nd Georgia Infantry Regiment of the Confederate Army as a private, and in 1862 he was promoted to corporal. Owen died as a prisoner of war in Point Lookout, Maryland.