High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! John Owen (August 1787 9 October 1841) was the 24th Governor of the U.S. state of North Carolina from 1828 to 1830. Owen was born in Bladen County, North Carolina; he was the son of Thomas Owen, a judge and member of the state legislature. He briefly attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, but did not earn a degree. In 1812, Owen was elected to the North Carolina House of Commons and served there for two years; he was later elected to one year in the North Carolina Senate (1819-1820). Named to the North Carolina Council of State in 1824, Owen returned to the state senate in 1827 but was elected Governor by the General Assembly in December 1828, narrowly defeating Richard Dobbs Spaight, Jr. in a vote of 96 to 92.