Fursen[?] Owens 12 years old. Can't read. Don't know A, B, C's. "Yes I want to learn but I can't when I work all the time." Been in mills 4 years, 3 years in Olympia Mill, Columbia, S.C. and 1 year here. Location: Augusta, Georgia, January 1909, Lewis Hine.

I fell in love with this photograph the first time I saw it. Lewis Hine captured something almost intangible in this boy, perhaps an inner spirit and the instincts and creativity to get through life no matter how difficult it might be. As I began my research, I hoped to uncover a story that would confirm what I saw in his face. I am happy to say that I did.

According to Lewis Hine and the National Child Labor Committee, textile mills in the Carolinas and Georgia were among the worst violators of child labor laws. At the time if this photograph, Furman was working at the John P. King Manufacturing Company (more about this mill at the end of this story). According to a report published on Sciway.net, the website for South Carolina Information Highway, the Olympia Mill opened in 1899 and closed in 1996. In 2007, it was renovated for upscale apartments. When it was built, it was the largest cotton mill under one roof in the world.

At the time Hine took the photo, the South Carolina child labor law prohibited employment of children under the age of 12, but that apparently didn't stop Olympia from hiring young Furman, if we are to believe Hine's caption: "Been in the mills 4 years, 3 years in the Olympia Mill." Even after children reached 12, they could legally work up to 60 hours a week.

Finding information about Furman was difficult at first. I had just started my research project, and I still had much to learn about where to look and what shortcuts to take. After finding his date of death in the Social Security Death Index, and then obtaining his obituary, I tracked down a potential great-granddaughter and called her up. She said there might be a lot of people named Furman Owens, and she wasn't sure the one I was calling about was related to her. She asked me where he was living when he passed away. I said, "Summerville, South Carolina." She replied, "Yep, that's him. When I was a little girl, every time I visited him, he would give me a silver dollar."

I told her I would call her again for more information, but strangely, she never returned any of my phone calls or answered any of my letters or emails after that. Thankfully, further research finally led me to his grandson, Ronald Owens, whose heartfelt interview on the following pages offers some colorful anecdotes.

According to several reliable sources, Furman Griffin Owens was born in South Carolina on March 6, 1896, the son of William Ashley Owens and Sena Belle Eubanks. The family did not appear in the 1900 census, but in the 1910 census, they were living, with eight children, in Barnwell, South Carolina, where the father worked for the railroad. The mother's name was listed as Bissie, which might have been a nickname.

In about 1919, Furman married Lillian Dantzler. In the 1920 census, they were living with a baby son in Charleston, South Carolina, where he worked as a machinist in the navy yard. In 1930, they still lived in Charleston, with four children, and he worked in a garage as an auto mechanic.

Furman Owens passed away in Summerville on August 10, 1980, at the age of 84.