Thomas Jefferson Vance Owen (April 5, 1801 – October 15, 1835) was an American settler who was the first president of the Board of Trustees of the Town of Chicago.
Owen was appointed to take his place by the United States Senate on February 4, 1831, being chosen over local residents Gurdon Saltonstall Hubbard and John H.
[4] Owen arrived in Chicago without having a house; the building intended to house the agent had become the property of Kinzie after Wolcott's death for having been included in James Thompson's plat of Chicago and Wolcott's subsequent inaction to stop it from falling into private hands.
[8][9] The federal government directed for there to be a treaty negotiated with the Potawatomi, Odawa, Chippewa and Kickapoo natives and the settlers.
[11] His health at that time had been compromised during his efforts to expel Potawatomi Indians to lands west of the Mississippi River per the 1833 Treaty of Chicago.
[13] Historian James Ryan Haydon published a book on Owen in 1934 titled "Chicago's True Founder" which asserted that he was the true spiritual father of the city, as opposed to figures more popularly seen by modern audiences to have held that role such as John H. Kinzie and William B.