User:VCailleteau/Thomas Overton

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Thomas Overton (1753-1824) was an active participant in the American Revolution and the early life of the United States. Thomas was born in Hanover County, Virginia. The great-great-grandson of Robert Overton of Easington (a Puritan), Thomas was Adjutant and later Captain of the Fourth Continental Dragoons in the American Revolution. In 1783, he was one of those present at Mount Gulian (Verplanck House) in Fishkill, New York, for a meeting led by then-Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Hamilton which resulted in the founding of the Society of the Cincinnati. After the Revolution, Overton lived for several years in Moore County, North Carolina, where he served in state government as the Inspector of Revenue. By 1804, Thomas moved to land near Nashville, Tennessee where he built his home "Soldier's Rest" next to his friend Andrew Jackson's "The Hermitage" and his brother Judge John Overton's "Traveler's Rest." In 1806, he served as Jackson's second in that man's momentous duel with Charles Dickinson. After Jackson, wounded, did not fall at the first shot but found that his weapon misfired, Overton called upon Dickinson to "come back and toe the line like a man, sir!" Jackson's next shot did not misfire, and it was fatal. According to the so-called "Catlett Letter" signed by both Thomas Overton and Hanson Catlett, Dickinson's second, the duel was conducted appropriately to accepted rules for such affairs.

Overton died in 1824. His widow Penelope remained at "Soldier's Rest" until her death in July 1843.