OVERTON, Thomas, St. Landry, then Rapides Parish, Louisiana Submitted by Mike Miller ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** Overton, Judge Thomas, was born at Opelousas, La., March 26, 1835, and died at Alexandria, Aug. 14, 1913. He was the son of John H. Overton, district judge of the Opelousas district, and Emily King, daughter of Judge George R. King, of St. Landry. The Overtons were not only lawyers but soldiers--his forbears having served in the war of the Revolution and having been intimate friends of Andrew Jackson. In Dec., 1869, he was united in marriage to Miss Laura E. Waddill, eldest daughter of the late John P. Waddill, a prominent lawyer of the Avoyelles bar. Four children were the issue of this union, Judge Winston Overton of Lake Charles; John H. Overton, of Alexandria, and Mrs. Claude Brooks, of Baton Rouge, who survive him, and Ella, who died in infancy. He received his early education in the schools of his native state, and his academic education at the University of Virginia, and graduated at the Louisiana Law school (now Tulane) in 1858, beginning the practice of his profession in Opelousas. He enlisted in the military service of the Confederate states early in 1861, as captain of company B, 1st regiment Louisiana regulars, resigning this rank in May, 1861, to accept that of 1st lieutenant in the regular army of the Confederate states. Thereafter he was on the staff of Maj. Gen. D. H. Hill, army of northern Virginia, and Lieut. Gen. Holmes in the Trans-Mississippi department, and was mustered out in June, 1865 at the close of hostilities. He participated in the fighting about Pensacola, South Mountain, Sharpesburg and Harrison's Landing and other battles. Gen. Hill made complimentary mention of his gallantry in his report of the Maryland campaign. In the fall of 1866 he was elected prosecuting attorney of the district composed of Avoyelles, Pointe Coupée and East Feliciana. He was district judge from 1884 to 1888 of the district composed of the parishes of Avoyelles, Rapides and Grant. He took a lively interest in the affairs of his state and parish, being ever an unswerving democrat. He served 4 years on the state board of education, during the administration of Gov. Foster and later consented to serve on the parish board of school directors of Avoyelles parish, from which he resigned in 1904 on account of his removal to Alexandria. He was a competent lawyer and an exemplar of integrity and devotion to his profession. Source: Louisiana: Comprising Sketches of Parishes, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form (volume 3), pp. 340-341. Edited by Alcée Fortier, Lit.D. Published in 1914, by Century Historical Association.