John E. Owens

Who was John E. Owens?

John Edward Owens was an English-American comedian, born in the Aigburth district of Liverpool, England but taken to the United States when three years old. He began his stage career in 1841 in Philadelphia.

Owens was a popular comedian whose regular repertory included about fifty parts and who earned a fortune. His Solon Shingle was famous both in the United States and in England; among his other favorite characters were Dr. Pangloss, Caleb Plummer in stage adaptations of Charles Dickens's The Cricket on the Hearth, and the old man in Esmeralda, in which he last appeared in New York. He was both humorist and comedian. John E. Owens, describing the conduct of a bee in an empty molasses barrel, once threw a circle of his hearers almost into convulsions of laughter. He died at his home, Aigburth Vale near Towson, Maryland, December 7, 1886.