As a young civil engineer , Owen surveyed for various railroads . In Jonesborough , Tennessee , he met schoolteacher Narcissa Clark Chisholm , orphaned daughter of Cherokee chief Thomas Chisholm . A granddaughter of Chief John D. Chisholm who led an expedition along the Arkansas River , she had been born in Arkansas before the Trail of Tears . Rev. David Sullins married them . They had two sons : Maj. William Otway Owen M.D. ( 1854-1924 , born in Tennessee and who became a U.S. Army doctor ) and Robert Latham Owen Jr. ( 1856-1947 , born after they moved back to Lynchburg , and who became one of the first two U.S. Senators from Oklahoma )
Trail of Tears
Trail of Tears
Robert L. Owen Sr.