Owen Weed Nims was born on January 26, 1842, in Iowa to Amasa and Adeline Nims. His father was a farmer who owned $200 of real estate by 1850. The family lived in Bloomfield, Iowa, until the 1850s, when they moved to Maquoketa, Iowa.
He enlisted in the Union army on September 30, 1861, and he mustered in as a private in Company I of the 12th Iowa Infantry on October 23. The regiment took part in the Battle of Shiloh, and Confederate forces captured him there. He mustered out on August 23, 1862.
He returned to his parents’ household in Maquoketa after leaving the army, and he earned a living as a carpenter. He married Julia Miller around 1871, and they had at least four children: Eva, born around 1874; Mary, born around 1876; Daisy, born around 1878; and Roy, born around 1882. By 1880, he was working as a steamboat engineer. By 1910, he was living in his son Roy’s household in Maquoketa. His wife died on October 23, 1916, and he passed away of a cerebral hemorrhage in Maquoketa on August 26, 1929.