Nathaniel Owens House

Green County, Kentucky

    This federal style brick house was built  about 1800 near Little Brush Creek by Nathaniel Owens.  He was one of Green County's most well-to-do land owners.  Nathaniel's daughter,  Mary Owens, courted Abraham Lincoln while visiting her sister in Illinois, but she refused his proposal of marriage.  Mary married a Mr. Vineyard and they made their home in Missouri. 

     After Nathaniel Owens' death the farm passed to his son John Y. Owens.  John Y. Owens and wife Ellen sold the old house and 450 acres embracing it to Richard and Jensey Martin Skaggs of Taylor County in 1851.  The Skaggs family lived there for a few years before returning to Taylor County in 1856.  The farm then passed into the ownership of the Hezekiah Warren family.  A deed, however, was not made transferring ownership of the remaining 387 acres from Richard Skaggs to Hezekiah Warren until 1887. In the 1890's the home became the property of Alexander Milby.  The Milby family owned the old home for a number of years.  It was torn down in the 1960s. 

     This photograph belongs to Barbara Dewitt Webster, a great granddaughter of Alexander Milby.

Photo and history courtesy of Jeremy Johnson