Benjamin Owen Mallory 1891 - 1967


Benjamin Owen Mallory was the fourth child of Benjamin Franklin Mallory and Letitia Owen Mallory.  He was born in Eddy, New Mexico, on 28 May 1891.  (Carlsbad, NM, was originally named Eddy.)
 
Letitia's younger brother, Conrad, "remembered visiting and being sent out in the evening to round up stock.  He was struck by the sight of a great many bats flying around and was convinced there must be caves somewhere in the area.  This was before the Carlsbad Caverns were discovered." (From June Ferguson's family history.)
 
Four more Mallory children were born shortly after Owen, in Texas.  He was one year old when Leon Franklin was born, two years old when Edrie Minnie was born.  He was five years old when Louis Orlando was born, and seven when Rhoda Eliza was born.

According to the 1900 Census, Owen (age 9) and his older siblings all attended school for about six months, no doubt working the farm for the other six months of the year.  Leon Franklin did not attend school with the others.  He would have been seven years old, but had already suffered the disease that left him deaf and dumb. 

And four more children were born to Ben and Letitia in the next seven years: Houston Lee, in Texas, and Perry Oscar, Dorothy Amanda and Leona Lucinda in Wallowa, Oregon.  Owen was about twelve years old when the family left Texas to go to Oregon, by way of Oklahoma for a year (1904). 
 
"Owen, 13 in May, was lighter of complexion, his features and coloring more like his father, of serious disposition.  How he felt about this move, I don't know, but much of his life was spent moving from place to place." (June Ferguson)
 
In 1910, Owen was nineteen years old.  The census states that he attended school for a few months, but was "working out" as a farm laborer most of the year.  June Ferguson recounted that "The homesteaders went 'outside' to work in harvest--to Walla Walla, Dayton, Waitsburg, Pomeroy, the Palouse country, even to the Willamette Valley...to get some money to live on while getting fields cleared and getting a harvest.  ...  Lee and Leona said that all the boys were required to turn over the money they earned to their father.  Dot said, 'I remember the boys (Buck, Owen or whoever) after working 'outside' for a season would come home.  It was an exciting time.  They'd bring a bag of money.'"
 
The next year (1911), Norma, Owen, Edrie, Buck, Lila and Lee all went to Enterprise for school.  Norma, Owen and Edrie were in high school.  Dot recalled that "Owen worked as a janitor at the Baptist church."  
 
In 1912, Lila, Edrie and Owen went to Wallowa for school.  While they were away, their father built a new house [painted white with red trim and interior walls with wainscotting and wallpaper].  He then tore down the log cabin they had been living in.  Lila said, "The first time I saw the new house I had a feeling of disappointment, although I knew it was a better house than the other one.  It was built better but we kids never cared as much for it as the big, old, drafty, barny house with the big fireplace and its back porch the length of it."  
 
Lila also remembered that the family lived on the farm for thirteen or fourteen years, but "Thinking back it seems much longer." (Ferguson)

Dot recalled that Owen was drafted during World War I, "I was 12 in 1917 when the family left Bartlett to go to Texas, Dad and Mother, Lee Leona and I."  But, Benjamin Owen Mallory enlisted in the army on May 30, 1918, and reported for duty at Camp Cody in Deming, New Mexico.  Owen was assigned to Company A of the 134 Infantry 34th "Sandstorm Division," where he served as a clerk.  The regiment was shipped to France on 13 October 1918, but they never saw action.  Six months later, they returned home.  
 
1919
For six years, between 1920 and 1926, Owen worked a farm in Imperial, California, near his father and his brother, Houston Lee. 
 
By 1930, Ben and Letitia had returned to Grouse, Wallowa, Oregon, along with Louis Orlando and Houston Lee, and Owen was working as a laborer on a fruit farm in Asotin, Washington. 
 
Benjamin Franklin Mallory died in 1934.  Owen remained in Wallowa for the next eight years, working as a farm laborer.  

In 1942, Owen registered for the draft.  He was described as 5ft 10in tall, 160lbs, with blue eyes, brown hair, and a light complexion.  He was unemployed at the time, probably because it was only April and farm work was several months away.  

The next year, Owen's sister, Edrie Minnie, died unexpectedly at the age of 49 from a blood clot in her abdomen.  Only a year later, his brother, Joseph Clay, age 58, died of heart disease.  Owen's mother, Letitia, age 76 at the time of her daughter's death, had been living with Edrie.  When Letitia died in 1950, at the age of 83, it was Owen who gave his mother's vital statistics for the death certificate.
 
In the 1950 Census, Owen is listed as a sawmill laborer in Asotin and enumerated with his sister, Dorothy.   

There is a pretty big gap in documentation after 1950.  Fifteen years later, here is a 1965 city directory for Glendora, Los Angeles County, that names Owen, no occupation given, also Dot, working as a bookkeeper and Leona (married name Poor), a nurse, both living nearby.  Owen was 74 years old by this time and a Social Security claim appears to have been submitted by him sometime in the past, one of the first claims by a Mallory since Social Security was instituted back in 1934.  

In 1966, Owen's brother, Louis Orlando "Buck" died at the age of 69.  Then, Benjamin Owen Mallory died on 29 November 1967, at the age of 76.  He was buried near his father in the Evergreen Cemetery in Imperial, California.  
 
Owen never married, but spent his entire life near his family.  Even so, there are very few mentions of him in the family history, and no stories of flamboyant behavior or exciting adventures.  Even his time in the war as a clerk, with six months service in France, was either unremarkable or Owen kept it to himself.  It seems that Owen must have kept a lot to himself, and just got on with what needed to be done.
 
If anyone has something more to add about Benjamin Owen Mallory (letters, an obituary, a family story) please comment.

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