OWENS, TEXAS (Crosby County). Owens is on Farm Road 40 twenty-eight miles east of Lubbock in Crosby County. It was named for Tom B. Owens, who built a four-room brick school on the site in 1924. In 1925 F. E. Watkins built a store, which remained in operation for twenty years. Also in 1925 C. F. Dean built the first gin in the community. It was one of the largest cotton gins in Crosby County and burned during a 1948 sandstorm but was later rebuilt. Owens reported a population of seventy-five in 1980 and 1990. At that time the community's school-aged children attended school at Ralls. By 2000 the population was forty.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Crosby County Pioneer Memorial Museum, A History of Crosby County, 1876-1977 (Dallas: Taylor, 1978). Nellie Witt Spikes and Temple Ann Ellis, Through the Years: A History of Crosby County (San Antonio: Naylor, 1952).

Edloe A. Jenkins