Lewis Owings

Who was Lewis Owings?

Dr. Lewis Sumpter Owings was a medical doctor and politician in the New Mexico and Arizona territories. He was chosen twice for the role of Provisional Governor for the territory of Arizona by conventions seeking to organize the territory-by both pre-Civil War Union and Confederate delegations.

Born in Roane County, Tennessee, Owings was a medical doctor and businessman. He went to Arkansas and then to Texas, where he helped founded Helena, Texas serving as the first postmaster. In 1855, he served in the Texas House of Representatives but was defeated for reelection moving to Mesilla, New Mexico, where he had a mine.

In 1860 Owings was chosen as Provisional Governor of "Arizona Territory"—a region including New Mexico and Arizona—in an organization convention at Tucson. The Convention subsequently petitioned the United States Congress for recognition of their government, but the impending conflicts of the American Civil War in the east distracted Washington's attention away from what was then a remote frontier outpost.