Sadie Elizabeth Owen was born in Edgerton Village, Minnesota on January 19, 1891. She was the daughter of Richard Owen (1853-1934) and Sarah Rees Owen (1857-1931). Richard came to Montana in 1892 where he worked as a miner in Hassel, Broadwater County. His wife and daughter joined him after he built a cabin on Eureka Creek, a structure later owned by the U.S. Forest Service as the Eagle Ranger Station. Sometime around the turn of the century the Owen family moved to Radersburg where Sarah operated a boarding house and Richard resumed working as a miner. Sadie lived at the boarding house, attending school in Radersburg and helping with chores at her mother's business. Richard Owen eventually left Radersburg to take up a ranch which his wife purchased in 1910.
The Owen diary contains brief entries on the day to day activities of an adolescent girl. Sadie mentions mostly recreational activities, such as horseback riding, attending dances, playing games, and often simply "bumming around." School related entries describe classroom discipline incidents and band practice. Many entries identify her friends and schoolmates only by their initials, but occasionally a code at the top of the page indicates the full name of people indicated by the initials.
This collection is open for research.
An original diary created by Sadie Elizabeth Owen was donated to Special Collections by the Museum of the Rockies on August 17, 1984.
This collection was processed 2009 October 8