OVERSTREET, JOHN, was born in 1784 or '5, in Bedford county, Va. His father, John Overstreet, was born in 1758, in the same county, and was a soldier in the Revolutionary army during the whole seven years war for Independence. In 1783 he was married to Nancy Dabney. They had four children in Bedford county, and moved to Cabell county, West Virginia, and died there. His son, whose name heads this sketch, was married in Cabell county to Susan Roberts. He became a soldier in the war with England, in 1812. While in the army, he heard that his wife had been killed by Indians, and soon after was himself captured by Indians. Not long after his capture the Indians were preparing to burn him alive, and while doing so one of their number offered him such a gross insult that he knocked the savage down and he fell in the fire prepared to burn his victim. This act of brave daring in the face of death, inspired the other Indians with respect, and a feeling that he was too noble to be thus treated, and they saved his life. He was next sold and taken to Canada, where he fell into the hands of white men, with whom he was retained for a few years in rather easy restraint, and by the time he had gained his liberty, he had formed attachments, and married there. One child was born, and the wife and child died. Finding himself once more alone in the world, a yearning desire for the scenes of his younger days sprang up, and he returned to Cabell county, Virginia. He paid his first visit to the old cabin where he had spent the years of his early married life. Seeing the smoke curling up from the chimney, he sauntered, half dreamily, to the door, and without having framed any excuse for his visit he knocked at the door, and after a short pause it turned on its rude wooden hinges, and the wife of his youth stood before him! Having long before given him up for dead, his sudden appearance in bodily form was more than she could bear, and she sunk in a swoon. Mr. Overstreet soon discovered that she had another husband, and when she revived, the three held a council. The two husbands agreed to leave it for her to say which should be her husband, each giving his word that if he was rejected, he would go away and offer no annoyance to the favored one. She decided to retain her first love. The rejected husband, true to his word, bade them adieu, disappeared, and they never heard of him again. Mr. and Mrs. Overstreet came to Sangamon county, in 1819, and settled not far from where Athens now stands. A few years later, being a millwright, he built a horse mill at Athens, manufactured flour, loaded a small flat boat, in the Sangamon river, and with two brothers, Jesse G. and David Hurt, floated down the Sangamon into the Illinois, thence to the Mississippi river, and down that stream to New Orleans. The trip was a successful one, but Mr. Overstreet died in New Orleans, in 1835. The two brothers started home, and David died at the mouth of the Ohio river. Jesse G. Hurt, the only survivor, is yet living, and resides in Menard county. He married a niece of Mr. Overstreet. See name of Dabnay Overstreet. Mr. Overstreet was for several years a local preacher in the M. E. church. His widow died in Athens in 1869, in her seventy-fourth year.