Orange County FlArchives Biographies.....Overstreet, Moses O. October 10, 1869 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/fl/flfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Nancy Rayburn http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00025.html#0006128 January 29, 2014, 1:57 pm Source: The Lewis Publishing Co., Vol. II , page 4-5 , 1923. Author: The History of Florida: Past & Present OVERSTREET, MOSES OSCAR, one of the foremost of the progressive business men of Orlando, judicial center of Orange County, and present (1922) representative of the 19th district in the Florida senate, was born at Kirkland, Georgia, October 10, 1869, and is a son of JAMES W. and SUSAN ANN (SOLOMON) OVERSTREET, who were born and reared in that state, where the father passed his entire life and where the widowed mother still resides, at the venerable age of eighty-seven years. JAMES W. OVERSTREET became a successful exponent of agricultural and livestock industry in his native state, was a loyal and substantial citizen and commanded unqualified popular confidence and esteem, he having been seventy-eight years of age at the time of his death. Of the fine family of fifteen children all but one attained to years of maturity. MOSES O. OVERSTREET was reared on the old home farm, and his early education was acquired under the preceptorship of private tutors employed by his father to instruct the children of the household. Mr. OVERSTREET continued to be associated with the activities of the home farm until he had attained to his legal majority, and he then initiated his independent career, in which he has mustered his fine powers in such a way as to win large and substantial success, the while he has so ordered his course in all of the relations of life as to merit and receive the unequivocal respect and esteem of his fellow men. His first independent enterprise was initiated when he entered into a contract to build railroad crossings and water-drains. He soon completed this work and thereafter he taught in the public schools of his native state for a period of two years, the meanwhile using his vacation periods profitably. He next gave four years of excellent service in riding turpentine camps for his brother-in- law, D. N. HORNE, with whom he came to Florida in September, 1898. They purchased a turpentine camp near Plymouth, Orange County, where Mr. OVERSTREET maintained his residence several years. During the entire period of his residence in Florida he has continued his association with the naval-stores industry, and about 1905 he expanded his field of productive enterprise, by engaging in the sawmill business. In this connection he soon provided facilities for the manufacturing of orange and vegetable crates, and the enterprise is now conducted under the title of the Overstreet Crate Company. He is president and general manager of this company, which, since the destruction of its large mill, Lockhart, in 1917, has functioned principally in the development and sale of lands which it had formerly acquired. In year 1903 Mr. OVERSTREET removed from Plymouth to Orlando, the County seat, and here, in 1913, he became president of the bank that is now chartered as the First National Bank of Orlando. He continued president of this representative financial institution until 1920, when the demands of his other large and important business interests led him to resign the office. He is president of the Atlas Manufacturing Company, manufacturers of the Phillips window-frame machines, and this is one of the important industrial concerns of Orlando. In his business career Mr. OVERSTREET has shown marked initiative and constructive ability, and his energy and progressive and well ordered policies have enabled him to achieve substantial and worthy material prosperity. Mister OVERSTREET has never wavered in his loyal allegiance to the democratic party, and he has been called upon to serve in various offices of public trust. He was a valued member of the city council of Orlando a number of terms, was for twelve or more years county commissioner, and in this connection was a stalwart force in advancing the good-roads movement in Orange County, and in 1920 he was elected to the state Senate, for the regular term of four years, his preferment in this connection being an assurance of loyal and effective service in behalf of the state, as well as his constituent district. In the time-honored Masonic fraternity Mr. OVERSTREET has received the maximum degrees of York Rite, as a member of the Orlando commander of Knights Templars, and also the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite, besides being a noble of the Mystic Shrine. He is affiliated also with the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. The year 1900 marked the marriage of Mr. OVERSTREET to Miss R. ETHELYN CHAPMAN, daughter of JOHN T. CHAPMAN, of Plymouth, Orange County. Mrs. OVERSTREET was born in Georgia and was about eight years of age at the time of the family removal to Florida. Senator and Mrs. OVERSTREET are the parents of four children: ROBERT T., HAZEL, ELIZABETH, and MILDRED. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/fl/orange/bios/overstre61bs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/flfiles/ File size: 5.5 Kb