Biographical Details
Date of Birth: May 21, 1819
Birth Location: Oldham County, KY, USA
Major Study: Law
Graduation Year(s): 1844, 1847
Degree(s) Earned: Bachelors, Bachelor of Laws
Date of Death: February 8, 1907
Death Location: Franklin, IN, USA
Gabriel Monroe Overstreet
Life Experience
Gabriel Monroe Overstreet was born in Kentucky. He was the elder brother of Robert Mitchel Overstreet He was one of fourteen children (seven brothers and seven sisters). When he was fifteen, his parents moved to Johnson County, Indiana. When he was twenty, his father gave him six hundred dollars, which he chose to spend on his education. He worked summers on the family’s farm and attended college in the winters. He spent one year at the Franklin Labor Institute (now Franklin College) and four years at IU. He obtained his bachelor of arts degree from IU in 1844 and his bachelor of laws degree in 1847. In 1847, he was licensed to practice law, and he became county prosecutor in 1848. In 1849, in the village of Franklin, he began the law firm of Overstreet & Hunter. By 1890, Franklin had become a city, and the law firm Overstreet had started was celebrated as the oldest original law firm (forty-one years) in Indiana.
During the Civil War, Overstreet served as a private in the 7th Indiana Infantry. After the war, he continued his law practice and was elected state senator for Johnson and Morgan Counties in 1882. He was also an elder in the Presbyterian church and a city councilman. Late in life, he was the county surveyor. He died and was buried in Franklin.
Marriage and Family
Overstreet married Sarah Morgan on November 20, 1849. In 1857, their son, Hubert, was born.
In 1870, they had their second child, daughter Hassie.
Interesting Anecdote
According to a eulogist, Overstreet’s family library consisted entirely of five books: the Bible, Book of the Martyrs by John Foxe, Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan, Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans by Plutarch, and Arabian Nights (the collection of ancient Oriental folktales, likely Jonathan Scott’s popular 1811 translation).
References
- Wylie
- Findagrave.com
- Wikipedia
- The Franklin Republican 02/28/1890
- The Emporia Gazette 02/27/1915
- Laut, William F. (1999) To Eternity We’ll Brothers Be: 150 Years of Leadership by the Indiana Alpha Chapter of the Phi Delta Theta Fraternity (self-published)