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Dr. Owen Jones Wister, Owen Wister's father.
Credit: Courtesy Wister Family and Wister Family Special Collection, Connelly Library, La Salle University.
Dr. Wister sent his Owen son to boarding school and Harvard University, then insisted that he enter a profession rather than pursue a career in music. Owen became so sick working at a bank and then a law firm in Philadelphia, that his doctor prescribed what became a life-changing summer in the American West.