Perry Owens was born in Tennessee on 29th July, 1852. He left home and by the 1870s worked as a cowboy in Texas.

He also did similar work in New Mexico and Arizona. A skilled gunman he also managed a stage station on the Navaho Reservation.

In 1886 Owens became a deputy sheriff of Apache County. The following year he was elected sheriff. In one incident he shot dead Andy Cooper, Mose Roberts and Sam Blevins while trying to arrest a gang of robbers.

Owens also worked for the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad and Wells Fargo before in 1895 becoming sheriff of Navajo County. Later he ran a saloon at Seligman where he died on 10th May, 1910.