This was the family home of several generations of the Mellon family.
In 1832 there is a Redmond Mallon (note Mallon not Mellon) living in Owenreagh. The Mallons were a very old sept of the O`Neills and would have been more associated with Tyrone and the shores of Lough Neagh. As has happened with many of our surnames they were Anglicised for various reasons and thus here we get Mellon. Redmond seems to have had a family because by 1856 there was a John and an Anne Mellon living here. We would suppose that they were man and wife. Redmond was still alive and living further up the slope and to the left. In 1901 Patrick Mallon 36 is living here with his wife Bridget 30 and their daughters Maggie 6 and Rose Anne 4.
Also living with them is a widowed aunt called Mary Mallon who is 85. Patrick Mallon was known to be a bit of a character with a great immagination and who told lots of tall stories. It is said that Pat was reared in Boley and kept strong links with his relations there. Patrick Mallon died March 1938 and his wife Bridget died April 1910.
Rose Anne got married and went to live in Dublin. She had at least one daughter. Maggie never married and when the last of her parents died, she moved up to Moyard to live with her cousin, Joe (Jack) Conway. Maggie was also remembered as a great character who ceildhied (visited) in most houses in the Sixtowns. She could be seen often riding her bicycle or, `oul gate` as she used to call it, up or down the Sixtowns road.
Owenreagh was once a densely populated townland, with many small holdings, now gone without trace.
The best means of identifying these holdings is through the use of Griffith`s Valuation list and map. The numbers on the list correspond with those on the map.
The Griffith`s Valuation (1856) list of tennants and Map of Farms in Owenreagh.
Since there were so many residents in this small townland over the years, we need to use these sources in order to find out who lived where.
It is noticeable that there are a number of family names in Owenreagh, like Flanagan, Convery and Lagan, which are more to be associated with Lisnamuck/ Maghera. We wonder if these people were first brought up from there by Stevenson, from Tobermore, when he became the new landlord of Sixtowns. These people may have been working for him at Tobermore.
