West Overton
Distilling Company
Written
& Compiled by K. R. Overholt
Critchfield
Photographs Created & Edited by K. R.
Overholt Critchfield © 2016, 2017, 2018
~~ Published January 18, 2018 ~~
~ Updated
September 1, 2018 ~
|

Circa 1867 West
Overton (Detail) ~ 1867 Westmoreland
County Historic Atlas; John
Pritiskutch Productions;
Photograph Created & Edited by K. R.
Overholt Critchfield © 2016
|
From Log Cabin
Distillery to Distillery Complex
Long before the United States had
federal laws governing trademarks, the
whiskey made by Abraham Overholt
(1784-1870) was sold under many company
names and labels. Collected evidence from
history books and period newspapers show
us that during Abraham's lifetime, his
distilling business was first known as A.
Overholt Company, then as A.
& H. S. Overholt, for a few years
as A. Overholt & Sons, then
again as A. & H. S. Overholt, and
finally as A. Overholt and Company.
At times, the chief product was
advertised and sold as Pure Rye Old
Farm Whiskey, West Overton Rye,
Overholt Rye, A. Overholt
& Co. Whiskey, Overholt Pure
Rye, or simply as Overholt. Abraham came into the
world after the American Revolution
(1775-1783), so he could claim to have
been born a citizen of the fledgling
United States of America. Only two others
among his twelve siblings could claim the
same birthright. Remembering this point
gives a special meaning to all he
achieved as an American. In the course of
his lifetime, Abraham was a farmer's son,
whose skill as a weaver helped maintain a
successful family business of weaving
coverlets. Later, he developed a beverage
alcohol that neighbors thought was worthy
enough to spend money to buy. Then
Abraham put faith in his ability as a
distiller, and launched A. Overholt
Company as a distilling commercial
enterprise. In his work as a farmer,
while digging a well on his property,
Abraham discovered coal. He was the first
person to discover coal in that region,
and the first there to use coal as an
energy resource for his home and
businesses, often used to fuel steam
engines.
In the due course of
time, Abraham gained a well-deserved
reputation for distilling and aging a
distinctive Pennsylvania rye whiskey.
Eventually, he distributed his whiskey on
a national scale, influencing methods of
mass production for this singular
commodity, building warehouses for
storage and aging, and developing systems
of distribution that kept Overholt
whiskey in the vanguard of a rapidly
developing American distilling industry.
Of course, Abraham did not accomplish all
these things alone -- he had a family.
Just as he had been one of many, working
together with his brothers and extended
family in farming, weaving and other
endeavors, Abraham could rely upon
getting his share of help, when he needed
it. But within this very large group of
related people, commercial distilling was
Abraham's realm, with his sons and
grandsons growing up to be part and
parcel of his overall success.
|
|

Abraham Overholt ~ Henry Stauffer
Overholt ~ Jacob Stauffer Overholt
Photograph Created & Edited by
K. R. Overholt Critchfield © 2006
|
|
The Overholts of West Overton could
trace their family back to a specific
family named Oberholzer,
and a specific village named Oberholz,
located at the top of a mountain
southeast of the city of Zurich,
Switzerland. [See Maps of Interest to
"O" Families at Karen's
Branches.] During the Protestant
Reformation, six sons of Marti
Oberholzer (1595-1670), a Swiss
Brethren preacher, found refuge in
Germany, where they worked as tenant
farmers in the Palatinate. While in
Germany, the family surname became
Oberholtzer, and when the Oberholtzer
families immigrated to America, the name
took many different spellings, including
Overholt. The extended "O"
family tree is comprised of many
variations of the Oberholzer surname, and
includes many notable Abrahams. Our
Abraham was the tenth of twelve children,
the fourth of five sons of Henrich
Oberholtzer (1739-1813) and Anna
Beitler (1745-1835), originally
of Bucks County, located in the
southeastern corner of Pennsylvania, near
Philadelphia.
Henrich Oberholtzer
(aka Henry Overholt) had
been a patriot in the cause of creating a
new and distinctly American nation, and
like many other German-speaking men, he
served in a locally formed militia during
the war for independency, specifically in
Captain McHenry's Company of Bedminster
Township, Bucks County. Many years after
the conflict was settled in favor of the
American cause, in the year 1800,
Henrich led a wagon train of his
immediate and extended family away from
the settled farmlands of Bucks County.
They traveled very nearly the full length
of what became the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania, and finally arrived in the
wild lands of Westmoreland County, where Henrich
and his family created the village of
Overton. It was known as
"Overton" perhaps up through
the 1860s, then identified as
West Overton by the 1870s,
perhaps to differentiate their community
in Westmoreland County from other
Overtons, like Overton Township in
Bradford County (settled
1806/incorporated 1853).
Abraham
Overholt made the journey to Westmoreland
County when he was sixteen years old.
Roughly nine years later, the day after
celebrating his 25th birthday, he became
a married man, when Maria
Stauffer (1791-1874) became his
wife on April 20, 1809.
Maria (Mah-rye-ah)
was the eighth of nine children, the
fourth of five daughters of Abraham
Stauffer (1752/3-1826) and Anna
Nissley (1752-1817). Abraham
Stauffer was the region's first Mennonite
preacher, who became a bishop of the
church. Early in 1790, the Stauffers
emigrated from Pennsylvania's Lancaster
County in the east, to Fayette County in
the west, with their family of seven
children (Barbara, Anna,
Christian, Martin,
Frances/Fannie, Abraham,
John). Their eighth and
ninth children (Maria, Elizabeth)
were born in the Jacobs Creek area.
Before long, no less than five Overholts
intermarried with this family, beginning
a long line of Overholt-Stauffer and
Stauffer-Overholt genealogical
interconnections.
|
|
The
Abraham Overholt Family
MC720
Abraham Overholt (1784-1870)
m. (1809) Maria Stauffer
(1791-1874)
8 Children
Henry, Anna, Jacob, Abraham,
Elizabeth, Martin, Christian, John.
~ ~ o ~
~
Henry
Stauffer Overholt (1810-1870)
m. (1846) Abigail Carpenter
(1824-1898)
7 Children
Sarah Ann, Benjamin, Maria, Abigail,
Abraham, Henry, Jennie.
Anna
Overholt (1812-1866)
m. (1830) John Tinstman
(1807-1877)
10 Children
Maria, Jacob, Abraham, Henry,
Anna,
John, Elizabeth, Abigail, Emma,
Christian.
Abraham
Overholt Tinstman = managed Broad Ford,
and later became a full partner with his
grandfather
Jacob
Stauffer Overholt (1814-1859)
m. (1836) Mary Fox
(1816-1895)
9 Children
Maria, Elizabeth, Abraham, Isaac, Mary
Anne,
Fenton, Christian, Jacob, Emma.
Abraham
Stauffer Overholt (1817-1863)
m. (1844) Mary Ann Newmyer
(1824-1877)
4 Children
George, John, Norman, Mary.
Abraham
Stauffer Overholt = Karen's
g-g-grandfather
George Washington Overholt = Karen's
g-grandfather
Elizabeth
Stauffer Overholt (1819-1905)
m. (1847) John W. Frick
(1822-1888)
6 Children
Maria, Henry Clay, Annie, Aaron,
J. Edgar, Sallie.
Henry
Clay Frick = dubbed the Coal King; later
owned the Broad Ford distillery complex,
with
partners Andrew W. Mellon & Richard
B. Mellon
Martin
Stauffer Overholt (1822-1899)
m. (----) Maria Wakefield
(1827-1886)
6 Children
Hudson, James, Mary, J. Franklin, Harry,
Ida.
Christian
Stauffer Overholt (1824-1911)
m. (1853) Katharine L. Newmyer
(1831-1894)
6 Children
Alice, Charles, Mary, Elmer, Anna,
William.
John
Stauffer Overholt (1826-1846)
No Issue
~
~ o ~ ~
|
|
It was in the year following the
wedding of Abraham and Maria, 1810,
that Abraham began his professional
career as a distiller, there in
"Overton." A newly built log
cabin distillery replaced an existing old
log cabin distillery that came with
Henrich's purchase of the homestead. The
new log cabin was probably built in the
Swiss fashion, with planed and
dovetail-shaped logs. With more space and
improved equipment, the distilling
capacity increased from one and a half
bushels of grain per day, to three or
four bushels of grain per day. He was
starting small, but was determined to
make his whiskey business a worthwhile
commercial enterprise. Before long,
Abraham built a stone distillery that had
a capacity of distilling forty to fifty
bushels of grain per day. By 1829,
Abraham's distillery had four stills and
was worth $400, and by 1832,
the evaluation jumped to one thousand
dollars. Circa 1834,
Abraham built a brick flouring mill.
Thereafter, grain could be chopped and
milled in "Overton," relieving
his sons of the task of hauling grain on
poor roads to and from mills located
elsewhere. One source reported that at
this time, both corn whiskey and rye
whiskey were being made by the Overholts,
and the superiority of their brands of
flour and whiskey brought them great
celebrity. After 24 years in business,
Abraham had shown himself to be a
public-spirited man, who conducted his
farm and business affairs in an energetic
but orderly fashion. He was a man who
never disappointed a creditor, and an
employer who was gentle with his
employees.
It should be
remembered that Abraham erected his
Homestead House in 1838,
on the site of the farmhouse purchased by
his father, Henrich Oberholtzer. In
all probability, Abraham and Maria
brought their eight children into the
world while living in Henrich's
farmhouse, then they raised their last
few unmarried children in the new brick
house. Subsequently, years later, they
took their granddaughter Maria
Overholt Frick (1848-1939) into
their home and raised her, too. Young
Maria was the first child of their
younger daughter, Elizabeth
Stauffer Overholt (1819-1905),
wife of "Overton" miller John
Wilson Frick (1822-1888). The 1870
census listed 21-year old Maria
Frick, an 18-year old domestic servant
named Joan Raymin, and three children
named Hait, as those who were living with
"Abram" and "Mariah."
The same census shows tollgate keeper
Margaret Hait, age 36, and her other five
children were living elsewhere in the
community.
As the years went
by, Abraham employed more workers for the
farm, the flouring mill, the lumber
company, and the distillery.
"Overton" grew with the
addition of new tenement houses, built
alongside new homes for the families of
Overholt sons and daughters. Two large
homes also served the needs of business.
|
|
Although the Overholts
distinguished themselves as managers
through their material goods and
expenditures, and although their enlarged
and efficient five-story mill and
distillery building implied an efficient,
integrated company, the seasonal nature
of the distillery business prevented a
highly regulated work organization.
Abraham Overholt took strong personal
control of the business, and ensured that
family control continued after his death
by entrusting all managerial positions to
close family. But because of the nature
of the work and perhaps the Overholts'
own preferences, many of the great
changes to workers' lives instituted by
nineteenth-century industry were absent
at West Overton. (46)
The Overholts apparently did not
adhere to the intense regulation of the
work day, represented by factory
clock-time. Though Abraham Overholt and
several other people (including workers)
in the village had clocks, [they were
not used] to regulate the working
day. There is no evidence that there ever
was a cupola or bell on the mill building
-- the clearest symbol of a
clock-regulated industry.
All present evidence for work
patterns in 1862 indicates life still
followed the irregular cycles of the
organic tasks. . . .
________________________
(46) One aspect of
nineteenth-century industry was child
labor. There is little evidence that the
Overholts employed children as labor
beyond what was normal on a farm . . .
There is no evidence that children could
or did work in either the mill or
distillery.
From HABS West Overton Survey
(1990), page 17
|
|
From
Farmers to Industrialists

Circa 1867 West Overton Community ~
1867 Westmoreland County Historic Atlas;
#8 Henry S. Overholt House ~ #9 Christian
S. Overholt Store & House; John
Pritiskutch Productions;
Photograph Created & Edited by
K. R. Overholt Critchfield © 2016
|
Until the final years of his life,
Abraham had only two real partners in
developing, growing and managing his
business affairs at "Overton"
-- Henry and Jacob,
his two oldest sons. In 1834,
about the time Abraham's brick flouring
mill was erected, firstborn Henry
Stauffer Overholt (1810-1870)
purchased a half-interest in A.
Overholt Company. The partnership
prompted a change in the business name to
A. & H. S. Overholt Company.
It was recorded that Henry was a
respected farmer, distiller and miller,
who excelled as a manager and
businessman. Jacob Stauffer
Overholt (1814-1859) was admired
as a man of great energy, and like his
father, he showed a talent for
distilling, and became a master
distiller. Circa 1850,
Jacob earned a full partnership with his
father and brother, and for a few years,
the company name changed to A.
Overholt & Sons. However, once
Jacob was working full time on the Broad
Ford distillery project, he bowed out of
the "Overton" partnership to
create his own business enterprise at
Broad Ford, with his cousin, Henry
O. Overholt (1813-1880).
Henrich
Oberholtzer (1739-1813) > Martin
Overholt (1772-1835) > Henry O.
Overholt (1813-1880)
The separation from Abraham's company
may have been necessary, since the new
distillery complex was in neighboring
Fayette County. The "Overton"
business name reverted to A. & H.
S. Overholt Company. It was not
until Jacob died, at age 44, that Abraham
stepped up to support the Broad Ford
distillery, maintaining the partnership
with his nephew, Henry O. Overholt. In 1864,
when Henry O. retired from managing Broad
Ford's A. Overholt and Company,
Abraham's grandson, Abraham
Overholt Tinstman (1834-1915),
became his last new partner.
Together, Abraham, Henry and Jacob
were the driving force behind the success
of several Overholt business concerns,
but especially whiskey production, which
probably always turned a profit. However,
all of Abraham's sons were involved from
their youth, and they all supported the
family farming and business activities in
one way or another. In the future,
Abraham's grandsons would move up from
supporting roles, becoming full-fledged
men of business in their own right, most
notably A. O. Tinstman and
Henry Clay Frick.
|
|
Initially both the flouring and
the distilling were part of the
agricultural cycle, and thus the rhythms
of production followed greater seasonal
cycles as well. When the grain was ready,
the company bought lots of it. Similarly,
the wages of all the villagers show a
seasonal fluctuation characteristic of
the agricultural order. This can be shown
in an examination of the monthly incomes.
Most of the villagers started low in
March and April, rose to a peak in May
and June (the spring busy period), slid a
bit in mid-summer (July), peaked again in
September and dropped off (some sharply)
in October . . . .
Another index of the change in
the social quality of life is in the
nature and exactitude of the accounting
system. In many aspects, pre-industrial
life was based on trust, on people in
face to face circumstances, all
cooperating in mutual support. Rosy as
this notion may be (and faltering,
perhaps, in performance), it was an ideal
concept of some power, and more
particularly so for the Pietist and
Sectarian groups of Pennsylvania, such as
Mennonites. Mutual loans were numerous,
and promissory notes exceedingly vague as
to the terms and timetables of repayment.
In this regard, the Overton
community did adhere to a somewhat
informal accounting system, despite the
size and modernity of the operations.(51)
________________________
(51) The books have not been
thoroughly analyzed from a business point
of view, so the data at this point is
still somewhat impressionistic, but
certain behaviors do seem to be clear.
The Overholts were the
overwhelming economic force in the
neighborhood and made loans and
'assumptions' frequently. It appears that
the employees were credited with their
salaries to the books and could make
withdrawals in goods, without actually
seeing the cash for long periods. The
frequent annotations 'to cash' represent
withdrawals from this surrogate bank (the
company) to make elsewhere what purchases
might be neccessary. Though the ledgers
themselves were kept with exactitude,
accounting amounts for flour, meat and
horse feed to the quarter penny upon
occasion, the time frame was vague. Wages
were paid on a two- or three-month basis,
but sometimes not until five and-a-half
or six months had elapsed; workers also
paid rent on a quarterly basis, or maybe
in six months, if need be.
The bill to the C. S. Overholt
store (dry goods and cloth) was also
tallied on rent day, but the debt itself
could slide indefinitely. There appears
to be no final accounting, with people
slipping in and out of the picture . . .
with no grand tabulation. In some cases,
records are made rather after the fact .
. . or before . . . And in one case a
record is finally made for something that
had happened a while before: Henry O.
Stauffer, by Eight Dollars, it being for
the Liberty of hauling logs through his
field a few years ago. There is even
an occasional suggestion of barter, the
ultimate in pre-capitalist economic
transactions: Henry S. Overholt, to
flour to [Joseph E. or Peter] Pore for
cherries-10 1/2 gallons ... $2.10, or
H. S. Overholt, to flour and whiskey
for cherries ... $2.07.
Cumulatively, the ledgers
indicate that the community present in
the village, and doing business with the
A & H. S. Overholt [Flour Mill and
Distillery] Company in 1862, was the kind
of tightly knit, face-to-face group that
we can only imagine today. In a tally of
the total number of transactions at the
mill during the month of August, very few
names (just under 7 percent) cannot be
located on the local scene, with 89 of
them Overholts, 169 from the village of
West Overton, 208 from the township of
East Huntington, and only 35 unknown. In
ten of the nonlocal cases, the parties
were out-of-town businesses with whom the
Overholts dealt, such as Farmers Deposit
Banking Co.; the Branch House,
Pittsburgh; the Iron City Bank; Hailman
Rahm & Co., Pittsburgh; their
wholesale whiskey dealers, Shippen &
Detwiler; McSwigin; or Cyrus Walton and
Jeremiah Gilchrist, the wholesale hog
dealers. That leaves a possible
twenty-five people coming into the mill,
out of 501 visits during the month of
August, who may not have been either a
neighbor or a regular business contact.
From HABS
West Overton Survey (1990), pages 18-19
|
|
Henry
S. Overholt House, West Overton, Circa 1845
|

Henry S. Overholt House, Historic
American Buildings Survey, 1990
Tinted Photograph Created & Edited by
K. R. Overholt Critchfield © 2016 |
|
Circa 1846, the Henry
S. Overholt House was built. It was
a large dwelling, with part of the
building providing rooms used by
servants, guests, and likely, visiting
businessmen. Eventually, Henry and his
wife Abigail would have seven children in
this house. |
|
The Henry S. Overholt
House is the earliest second-generation
family dwelling built in the West Overton
distilling complex, reflecting the growth
and development of the Overholt Company
and the related community of West Overton
. . . (erected) circa 1845. Henry S.
Overholt and family were living in their
own house in 1850; it was probably built
just prior to Henry's marriage to Abigail
Carpenter on February 10, 1846. On May
29, 1854, Abraham Overholt, the founder
of the distilling business, deeded a
one-half interest in the complex to
Henry, his eldest son. The deed described
a plot of 253 acres on which are
erected houses, outhouses, a griss
marchant [sic] mill,
distillery, barn, stables and the village
of Overton with many other valuable
improvements. The house was depicted
on county atlas maps of 1857, 1867, and
1876, and is prominent in the
lithographic view of the complex in the
1876 atlas. Architect: Not known.
From
HABS/HAER West Overton Survey (1990):
Henry S. Overholt House, HABS
No. PA-5655; page 1
Census
records indicate that the family of Henry
S. Overholt lived in the house by 1850,
with two unrelated people (one a
laborer), and in 1860, with three
unrelated people (one a teamster). By
1870, the family, then consisting of six
children, was listed without boarders. In
1880 the census listed Abigail, Henry's
widow, as the head of household, with all
the children living there. By 1900
Abraham C. Overholt (second son of Henry)
was probably living at this house. He was
manager of the mill/distillery until
1907, when it separated from the village
and coke works, which in turn remained
under the company name of A C. Overholt.
The property itself was always part of
the company's holdings; Henry was never
personally taxed for the property. In
1890, Abraham C. put the property in his
wife Gertrude's name, and in 1929, she
sold it out of the family. . . .
From
HABS/HAER West Overton Survey (1990):
Henry S. Overholt House, HABS
No. PA-5655; page 3
Regarding
the inset balcony on the second floor:
This outside passage also devalues the
function of these hinder rooms as well,
leading to the speculation that they
might have been servant's quarters. It
was not, of course, at all uncommon for
families of many economic stations in the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to
harbor distantly related or unrelated
persons within the fold, whether they be
indentured servants (earlier), or
apprentices, or hired hands (later), or
favorite grandchildren. The Overholts, of
course, participated in this extended
system.
Regarding
census data: At the house in
question, it is quite possible that
Charles Taylor, 17, "laborer,"
and Maria Stonecker (servant?) lived in
the upper rear rooms in 1850, or that
Thomas and Benjamin Carpenter (untaxed
unrelated teenagers) and John Harn (a
23-year-old "teamster") lived
there, whereas by 1870 and 1880, Henry S.
Overholt's own family had grown to six
children and the census takers list no
others, even though some of the children
are already "at school."
From
HABS/HAER West Overton Survey (1990):
Henry S. Overholt House, HABS
No. PA-5655; page 9
Regarding
the Site
General
setting: The house faces southeast
onto Frick Street, formerly Overholt
Street. The immediate lot was originally
bounded to the northeast by a short alley
which connected to a second one parallel
to Overholt Street, running thus behind
the "sheds" or tenant houses
associated with the houses on the main
way (Overholt Street).
Outbuildings:
The 1876 atlas view shows one outbuilding
directly behind the house. It was a brick
gable-roofed buildng with X-shaped
ventilators. Another outbuilding was
directly behind the store next door, on
the other side of a lane between them. It
is a three-story brick barn, with an
arcaded forebay and X-shaped ventilators
above. It may have served the Henry S.
Overholt House; by 1866, Henry S.
Overholt was also (personally) taxed for
five horses and four cows, and by 1867,
for four horses and six cows, so he would
have needed it. In fact, that his animal
assessment doubled in 1866 (from two of
each the year before), may indicate that
this barn was built in that year.
Landscaping,
enclosures: The 1876 Atlas view
depicted a line of at least seven small
trees along Overholt Street in front of
this house. There was also a sidewalk and
a picket fence, both conspicuously absent
on the other side of the street, where a
tenement apparently containing several
workers' families in 1880 (as well as
other workers' housing) was located. The
picket fence appeared to enclose the
entire yard, running parallel to the
street, approximately 75 yards to the
corner of Felgar's Run and Overholt
Street, which was then crossed by the
West Overton spur of the Mt. Pleasant and
Broad Ford Railroad, later acquired by
the Pennsylvania Railroad. The fence then
headed northwest along the stream several
hundred yards beyond the large barn and
stable, almost to the coke works. Between
the house and the stream, it enclosed a
grove of at least fourteen substantial
trees, planted in a grid formation, under
which, people were playing crocquet [sic].
Beyond the grove, between the barn and
the stream, were vegetable gardens.
From
HABS/HAER West Overton Survey (1990):
Henry S. Overholt House, HABS
No. PA-5655; page 13
|
|
Christian
S. Overholt Store & House,
West Overton, Before 1854
|

Christian S. Overholt Store &
House, Historic American Buildings
Survey, 1990
Tinted Photograph Created & Edited by
K. R. Overholt Critchfield © 2016 |
|
Christian
Stauffer Overholt (1824-1911),
Abraham's seventh child and fifth son,
got a new home before 1854, along
with an attached general store. Christian
S. Overholt was Abraham's youngest
surviving son. The youngest son, John
S. Overholt, died in 1846,
at age 20.
|
|
This
former residence and store is one of the
larger structures built by the Overholts
and marks the family's transition from
wealthy farmers to managers of an
industrial hamlet. The building combined
a substantial and visible general store,
having considerable social and public
accoutrements, with a private dwelling .
. . (erected) Before 1854. Although the
exact date of construction is not
certain, it was before May 29, 1854, on
which date Abraham Overholt, the founder
of the distilling business at West
Overton, deeded a 24-acre segment of his
original farm to his younger son,
Christian S. Overholt. This deed states
that the property includ[es] the lot in
Overton on which is erected the large
brick store and dwelling house &
other valuable improvements. On the same
date Abraham conveyed to Christian a
252-acre farm just to the northwest of
the village, and also transferred a
one-half interest in the remaining
portion of the original farm and growing
distillery complex to his older son,
Henry S. Overholt. This building, marked
as "store" and "C. S.
Overholt," appeared on the 1857
atlas.
From
HABS/HAER West Overton Survey (1990):
Christian S. Overholt Store &
House, HABS No. PA-5656; page 1
The house
was built, probably under the direction
of Abraham Overholt, the founder of the
distilling business in West Overton, for
his youngest son, Christian. The 1850
census indicated he was 25 years old, and
still living at home that time; the tax
records indicated that he had graduated
from working on the family farm (in
1848-9 he was called "farmer")
to working at the family distillery (in
1850-1, he was called
"distiller"). After a moment of
dissembling to the tax recorder (he was
called "farmer" again in 1852),
he was designated "merchant" in
1853. (Farmers were taxed much less for
their livelihoods than were distillers or
merchants.) After several years as
merchant, he was again called
"farmer" in 1861 and 1862, and
then sold out to his nephew-in-law, Jacob
O. Tinstman, eleven years after receiving
his original patrimony. Jacob Tinstman
had also been working in the family
business, called "stiller" or
"distiller," since his first
mention in the tax lists in 1858.
From
HABS/HAER West Overton Survey (1990):
Christian S. Overholt Store &
House, HABS No. PA-5656; page 3
________________________
Karen's
Note: A correction is in order.
Jacob Overholt Tinstman (1832-1919) was a
first-cousin of Christian, a son of
Christian's older sister (Abraham's older
daughter) Anna S. Overholt (1812-1866)
and John Tinstman (1807-1877). This
Jacob, who was married to Annie Leighty
(1829-1909), was the older brother of
Abraham Overholt Tinstman (1834-1815). A.
O. Tinstman managed the Broad Ford
distillery complex, then purchased a
partnership with his grandfather, Abraham
Overholt.]
Architectural
Character: As the second major house of
the "managerial" generation of
Overholts, the Christian S. Overholt
House and Store asserts itself in the
identically crisp vocabulary of the Greek
Revival vernacular that his older brother
Henry's house uses next door (see HABS
No. PA-5655). The dwelling sections of
the house are large; if one counts the
room to the rear of the store
traditionally used as "office"
(but here ample enough-three rooms,
actualry-to have been mudroom and
dwelling as well), then they are every
bit as large as Henry's house . . . .
But
Christian also incorporated a large
public space in his house: the store.
Although he (or rather, they: the family)
clearly intended this venture to be
profitable, it is also clear from the
architectural evidence that they meant it
to be a substantial social space as well.
The most conspicuous evidence of this
attitude is in the front steps. They are
much wider than is necessary for access
for either the store itself, or the
house, or even both; in fact, they extend
27'-3" across the front of the house
(connecting the two doors), and extend
3'-9" beyond the door to the store
itself. The resulting steps, almost
worthy of Odessa, are finely tooled and
serve as the major gathering, viewing,
reviewing and otherwise traditionally
convivial space of the village.
From
HABS/HAER West Overton Survey (1990):
Christian S. Overholt Store &
House, HABS No. PA-5656; pages 4
& 5
Landscaping,
enclosures: According to the 1876 Atlas
view, both the line of trees and the
picket fence (which characterize the
"family side" of the street)
break directly in front of the store. The
trees are replaced by two lengths of
hitching posts, for store patrons, and
the space immediately in front of the
structure is open, for easy access. The
sides of this space were also fenced,
virtually forming a forecourt, but by the
1913 photograph, a picket fence has also
been added down the steps, left of
center, separating the dwelling from the
commercial enterprise. The 1876 view
depicts rail fences surrounding the
property, lining the side and rear alleys
(i.e., between C. S. Overholt's Store and
House and Peter Cruse's, up the hill, and
presumably also between C. S. Overholt
and H. S. Overholt, down the hill, though
that is obscured).
From
HABS/HAER West Overton Survey (1990):
Christian S. Overholt Store &
House, HABS No. PA-5656; page 11
|
|
1850s
- When Railroads Were A Serious Business
In the decades before the Civil War,
our ancestors in Western Pennsylvania
were serious about building railroads.
Periodically, the local newspapers would
announce an upcoming Railroad Convention,
calling a gathering of businessmen,
lawyers, banking representatives, and
public servants from local government.
The men would be coming together to
propose the creation of a rail branch to
one of the existing railroad lines, in
order to link up communities that had no
existing rail service, and provide
transport for local goods. Up until the
appointed day, the conventions were
advertised in the daily news, and then
were covered by newspaper reporters, when
they commenced. Anybody who was anybody
would participate, coming prepared to
pledge money toward the project, knowing
from the onset that their names would
appear in print. Afterwards, newspapers
would publish the minutes of meetings and
reports made by project engineers, and
such. As for the Overholts, their names
show up quite a lot in historic
newspapers, before and during the war
years, not only in whiskey
advertisements, but also in serious
discussions about railroads. Abraham
Overholt and other members of the family
and extended family are found listed as
participants or stockholders in local
railroad enterprises. |
|

More Railroad Projects, Pittsburgh
Daily Post, Pittsburgh, PA; January
15, 1853;
Photograph Created & Edited by K. R.
Overholt Critchfield © 2016
==================================================================
MORE RAILROAD PROJECTS.
The Greensburgh Argus contains
the proceedings of a large and
spirited meeting of the citizens
of Mt. Pleasant and vicinity, on
Saturday, the 8th of January, of
which Maj. JOHN LLOYD was
President, convened for the
purpose of adopting measures to
secure the construction of a
Railroad through that garden spot
of old Westmoreland, to connect
with the Pennsylvania Railroad.
On motion, a committee of ten was
appointed to obtain releases,
receive subscriptions of stocks
and correspond with the officers
of the Pennsylvania Central
Railroad Company. The
following persons composed said
committee: Abraham
Overholt, Sr., Daniel Shupe,
Maj. John Lloyd, David Tinsman,
Esq., Dr. Wm. C. Reiter, Dr. J.
McConaughy, Jacob Overholt,
Samuel Miller, Sr., Wm. Snyder,
and Jonas Ruff . . . .
|
|
|
Henry D. Overholt
(1797-1856), son of Elizabeth
Detweiler and Jacob
Overholt (Abraham's older
brother), was especially active in
railroad conventions and transportation
matters. As far back as May 1838,
and as close to his death as December
1854, Henry D. Overholt is
listed in newspaper articles as attending
and/or working at conventions. He was
known as a farmer and "a lawyer
notary for Fayette County." The
following article from the Pittsburgh
Daily Post was interesting, because
Henry D. Overholt was appointed chairman
of the annual stockholders meeting of the
Pittsburgh & Connellsville
Railroad Company, and appointed to
be one of a group of "judges"
that were tasked with holding an election
for the following year's directors of the
company. Only a small portion of the long
article is shown here. At the PennState
web site, you can find an extensive
stockholders report regarding this
particular project. Search for the front
page headline, Pittsburgh and
Connellsville Railroad - Engineer's
Report, in the Pittsburgh
Daily Gazette and Advertiser,
Wednesday, December 6, 1854;
page 1.
|
|
 |
|
Pittsburgh Daily Post,
Pittsburgh, PA; December
7, 1854
_____________________________________________
Annual Meeting of the
Stockholders
OF THE
PITTSBURGH & CONNELLSVILLE R.
R. CO.
Notice having been duly given according
to law, a majority of the stockholders of
the Pittsburgh and Connellsville Railroad
Company held their annual meeting in the
office of the Company, Neville Hall, in
the city of Pittsburgh, on the first
Monday, 4th day of December, A. D. 1854,
and on motion of the President, Gen. Wm.
Larimer, Jr., organized at 10 o'clock, A.
M.
Henry
D. Overholt, of Fayette county,
was appointed Chairman, and A. Russell,
of the city of Pittsburgh, Secretary.
The object
of the meeting having been stated by G.
Larimer, he submitted, on behalf of the
Board of Directors, their annual report
to the stockholders, which was read,
adopted, and ordered to be printed.
The Chief
Engineer, Oliver W. Barnes, Esq., also
submitted a report of the operations of
his department, and exhibited in detail
the progress of the work during the past
year, which was read, adopted, and
ordered to be printed.
Wm. B.
Curry, Esq., Treasurer, also submitted
his report, which was read, adopted, and
ordered to be printed.
It was
then, on motion, resolved to proceed to
the election of Directors of the Company
for the ensuing year. Henry
D. Overholt, of Fayette county; Jacob
S. Overholt, of Westmoreland
county, and Joseph M. Kinkead, of the
city of Pittsburgh, were appointed Judges
to hold said election.
The votes
having been counted by the Judges, it
appeared that William Larimer, Jr.,
Pittsburgh; Thomas Scott, Pittsburgh;
James T. Kincaid, Pittsburgh; John
Anderson, Pittsburgh; Henry S. Garret,
Baltimore; Columbus O. Donnell,
Baltimore; Thomas C. Jenkins, Baltimore; C.
P. Markle, Westmoreland county;
Daniel R. Davidson, Fayette county, and
Peter Myers, of Somerset county, were
duly elected the Board of Directors for
the ensuing year.
A
unanimous vote of thanks was tendered to
Gen. Wm. Larimer, Jr., President, and
Oliver W. Barnes, Esq., Chief Engineer of
the Company, for the energy, ability and
fidelity with which the business of the
Company has been conducted, in the
various departments, during the past
year.
The following
report was submitted by the president,
General William Larimer, Jr., on behalf
of the Board of Directors, and read:
ANNUAL REPORT,
For the year 1854, of the President
and Directors to the Stockholders of the
Pittsburgh and Connellsville Railroad
Company:
OFFICE OF THE PITTSBURGH AND
CONNELLSVILLE R. R. Co.
Pittsburgh, December 4, 1854
To
the Stockholders of the
Pittsburgh
and Connellsville Railroad Company:
GENTLEMEN: In their last Annual
Report, the Board of Directors presented
to the Stockholders, at some length, a
retrospect of the earlier history of the
Company, by way of comparison with its
then existing condition; a synopsis of
the serial acts of the Legislature of our
State, which had been granted as
supplemental to the original charter, and
also of the act of incorporation, passed
by the General Assembly of the State of
Maryland, at its last session; by which
connections were secured, on liberal
terms, through the territory of that
State, with the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad, and the Chesapeake and Ohio
Canal, at the city of Cumberland, was
also submitted; the amount of the various
. . . .
|
|
Annual
Meeting of the Stockholders of the
Pittsburgh & Connellsville R R. Co.;
Pittsburgh Daily Post, Pittsburgh, PA; December 7, 1854
Photograph Created & Edited by
K. R. Overholt Critchfield © 2016
|
The web site of PennState
University Libraries, via Pennsylvania
Civil War Newspapers, provides a
good source of articles that can be
explored to get an inkling of the
planning, building, and growth of local
railroads (go to their web site: http://digitalnewspapers.libraries.psu.edu/
). There are many other sources of
historic newspapers online, including the
Library of Congress, however some
established sites require fees of one
sort or another. |
The
Progressive Farm & 1859 GRAIN DRILL
Advertisement
From the beginning, Overton Farm was
the anchoring enterprise for the Abraham
Overholt Family. The well-managed farm
produced the food that sustained good
health, and the physical labor kept
people humble, so to speak, teaching
lessons about cooperation and
interdependence, lessons about freedom
from want and, ultimately, a fair amount
of what independence really is. The same
was true for all Abraham's siblings --
most families looked forward to owning a
farm. Even if the head of a family, or
his sons, started working elsewhere for
spending money, the family farm was
always the safety net, the fall-back
position, the foundation underpinning the
next endeavor. However, gradually the
business of business became the
overriding focus of the succeeding
generations. |
|
As capitalistic and aggressive
as the Overholts' economic strategy may
seem to be, at the level of Abraham
Overholt's farm/distillery, it can also
be seen as a direct outgrowth of the
Mennonite farming heritage. The German
immigrants to Pennsylvania have been
cited as exemplary farmers ever since the
eighteenth century in America, and the
Mennonites in particular as innovators
and progressives, having almost magically
effective techniques, for nearly a
century earlier in Europe. The concept of
"stewardship" of the soil runs
very deep in Mennonite tradition, dating
to their experience in applying alpine
dairying techniques to marginal lowland
terrain after the Thirty Years War in
Europe. They found that in making this
transition, the hay crops, which grew
naturally in the mountains, needed to be
seeded and nurtured with manure in order
to survive in the lowlands. They also
noticed the revitalizing effect of the
legume hay crops such as clover on the
soil. Thus the concepts of recycling
wastes back into the production cycle, as
fertilizer or profit, has a long heritage
in the Overholts' Mennonite ancestry.
Many of the processes integrated into
Abraham's farm may be seen as just such
recycling, especially the feeding of the
waste to hogs.(13)
________________________
(13) Dr. Benjamin Rush, An
Account of the German Inhabitants of
Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: 1794);
Vladimir Simkhovitch, "Hay and
History," and "Rome's Fall
Reconsidered" both in Towards an
Understanding of Jesus (New York:
Macmillan, 1921).
Even as they were expanding and
industrializing the distilling and other
businesses at West Overton, the farm, of
which these businesses were a part,
remained important and progressive as
well . . . The company also had the
latest farming machinery -- a reaper. On
July 10 Holmes needed a knife (costing
$6) to replace one on his"Buckeye
Reaper." A "Buckeye Mowing
Machine" was listed in the inventory
of Henry S. Overholt, along with a
"bunching Machine," and a
"patent boreing machine." The
reapers in particular were extremely
advanced items in 1862, McCormick and
Hussey having gotten their inventions to
work effectively and into production as
recently as 1852. Ivan Glick, a Mennonite
and agricultural historian in Lancaster
County, Pennsylvania, has described its
use that early as equivalent to a private
helicopter today.(14)
________________________
(14) Interview with Ivan
Glick, August 14,1990. See also
Steveson Witcomb Fletcher, Pennsylvania
Agriculture and Country Life (Harrisburg:
Pennsylvania Museum and Historic
Commission, 1950-55), 29. Holmes' reaper
and that listed in Henry S. Overholt's
inventory were probably one and the same.
Overholt's inventory included the company
property, and although Holmes may have
been charged for maintaining a reaper, he
probably did not own it.
From HABS/HAER West Overton
Survey (1990)
HABS No. PA-5654 (pp. 5-6)
|
|
In my Internet searches of historic
newspapers, the advertisements of the
Civil War era were really amazing,
because of the language used to assure
the public that their companies and
products were worthy of respect, worthy
of the price paid to buy their products.
It appears that every publication was
inventing its own advertising language
for every new mechanical device, patented
medicine, or experiment in government
that came along. During a search for Overholt,
the following nearly identical ads were
among the results. They both pitch the
same new agricultural machine -- a grain
drill -- that included A.
Overholt from
"Overton" in the list of
satisfied customers. The manufacturer
engaged in a now time-honored method of
gaining new customers by presenting the
names of those who could endorse the
product, doubtless men of stellar
reputation, well-known in their own
counties and neighboring counties. The
inclusion of Abraham Overholt in these
ads, along with S. B. Markle and C. P.
Markle, caught my eye, because several
"Overton" Overholts and West
Newton Markles intermarried. A. O. Tinstman
(Abraham's grandson) married Harriet
Cornelia Markle
Mary Anne Fox Overholt
(Abraham's granddaughter) married Cassius
Clay Markle
Emma Fox Overholt
(Abraham's granddaughter) married George
A. Markle
~ and there were others ~
|
|

|
|

|
|
|
Daily Morning Post,
Pittsburgh, PA;
Tuesday, August 9, 1859;
Photograph Created & Edited by
K. R. Overholt Critchfield © 2016
|
|
Presbyterian Banner
and Advocate, Pittsburgh, PA;
Saturday, August 13, 1859; page 3;
Photograph Created & Edited by
K. R. Overholt Critchfield © 2016
|
|
|
GRAIN
DRILL.
THE
UNDERSIGNED is now
manufacturing at his shop, on REBECCA
STREET, IN ALLEGHENY CITY, a superior
Grain Drill, calculated for sowing both
fall and spring crops.
For sewing
Wheat, Barley, Oats, Rye, &c., in
rows, as well as grass seed, broad cast,
he pledges himself that it has not
heretofore been equalled, and he thinks
it can not be surpassed. It is warranted
to sow all the above seeds with perfect
uniformity, without any danger of
clogging, whether the seed is clean or
foul. It is easy of adjustment to the
different quantities of seed required to
the acre, and is not likely to get out of
order.
Sold at
fair prices and on accommodating terms.
M. D. WELLMAN,
Agent.
|
The following named gentlemen
have purchased and used the
Drills to whom the undersigned
refers with confidence and
pleasure: |
|
Capt. John Young,
Robinson Tp., Allegheny Co., Pa.
A. Overholt, Overton,
Westmoreland county
Dan'l Welty, Hannahstown,........"............."
Wm. Manner, Franklin Tp.,........"............."
S. B. & C. Markle, West
Newton, Westmoreland Co.
David M'Clain, South Huntington
tp.,...."..............."
R. S. Baker, Trustee, Economy,
Pa.
Jacob Ebey, Chambersburg,
Cumberland Co., Pa,
George McCullough, Wintersville,
Jefferson Co., Ohio
Thomas Roberts,................."............................"..........."
Martin L. Rinehart, Richmond,........................"..........."
W. C. Deardortf, Canal Dover,
Tuscarawas county, Ohio
aug91w |
|
|
GRAIN
DRILL.--THE UNDERSIGNED
is now manufacturing, at his
shop, on Rebecca Street, Allegheny City,
a superior
....................G R A I N......D R I L L,
calculated for sowing both Fall and
Spring crops.
For sowing
wheat, barley, oats, rye, &c., in
rows, as well as grass seed, broadcast,
he pledges himself that it has not
heretofore been equalled, and he thinks
it cannot be surpassed. It is warranted
to sow all the above seeds with perfect
uniformity, without any danger of
clogging, whether the seed is clean or
foul. It is easy of
adjustment to the different quantities of
seed required to the acre, and is not
subject to get out of order.
Sold at
$65 without the grass seed sower, and $70
with it.
The
following gentlemen have purchased and
used the drills, to whom the undersigned
refers with confidence and pleasure.
M.
D. WELLMAN, Agent
|
|
Capt. John
Young, Jr., Robinson Tp.,
Allegheny Co., Pa. |
A. Overholt,
Overton, Westmoreland |
do |
Daniel Welty,
Hannahstown,
Wm. Manor, Franklin Tp., |
do
do |
do
do |
S. B. & C.
P. Markle, West Newton,
David
M'Clain, South Huntingdon
R.
S. Baker, Trustee,
Economy,
Jacob Eby, Chambersburg,
Franklin |
do
do
do
do |
George
McCullough, Wintersville,
Jefferson Co., Ohio |
Thomas Roberts,. |
do |
do |
do |
Martin L.
Rineheart, Richmond, |
do |
do |
W. C. Deardorff,
Canal Dover, Tuscarawas |
do |
aul3-It |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Abraham's
First Whiskey Warehouses
We may wonder where Abraham Overholt
aged his barreled whiskey, long before
the first huge U.S. bonded warehouse was
built on the premises. It may be that
some of the buildings still existing at
the site once served as Abraham's first
whiskey warehouses. The following
photographs were included in the 1990
HABS report on West Overton, done for the
Library of Congress Historic American
Buildings Survey. At that time,
before a great deal of renovation took
place, several silos were still standing,
and farming equipment could be seen on
the grounds. To me, the buildings look
much like other barrel warehouses
constructed during the 1800s, as depicted
in drawings and old photographs of
famous-name distilling companies. The
HABS survey does not give exact dates for
the following buildings, merely
designating them as being constructed
before 1867. |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
Overton
Stock Barn
|
Designated
as Hog Pen & Stables
|
Designated
as Hog Pen & Stables
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
Named
the Large Brick Barn
|
Silos
& Large Brick Barn
|
Large
Brick Barn & Closest Silo
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Original
Photographs From Historic American
Buildings Survey, West Overton, 1990
Tinted Photographs Created & Edited
by K. R. Overholt Critchfield © 2016
|
The
Loss Amidst the Gain
When a family member dies, the whole
family is affected. The first time
Abraham and Maria had to face the death
of one of their eight children happened
on September 28, 1846,
and it was their youngest who was taken. John
Stauffer Overholt (1826-1846)
died unexpectedly, from some kind of
sudden calamity. The family would have
celebrated John's 20th birthday back in
the spring. In the fall, by the end of
September, they had to bury him. When
John was born, on June 1, 1826,
Maria was a month away from her 35th
birthday. John would have been "the
baby of the family," and it must
have broken his mother's heart to have
lost his presence in her life.
Thereafter, Maria's devotion to her
youngest son was measured by keeping a
carton of John's personal belongings
under her bed, until the day she died. |
|
Abraham Overholt
rapidly and consistently expanded the
industrial aspect of the farm. Despite
his continuing designation as 'farmer,'
it is clear that the transition away from
agriculture alone, and toward industrial
enterprise, had begun. The mention of a
grist mill in 1850 is the first example
of Abraham's expanding the family
operation beyond distilling, vertically
integrating that business to include the
tasks prior and subsequent to the
distillation itself . . . .
The tax records also
note a 'malt house' for the first time in
1850, which the U.S. Census of
Manufacturers listed as producing 7,000
bushels of malt in that year. . . The
building of the malt house gives further
evidence of the increased capacity of the
Overholt operation; this process would
previously have been carried out in the
distillery itself.
The problem of waste
mash (malt after it is heated and
ferments) was not solved until 1856, when
'hog pens' were added to the tax
assessment line for the distillery, also
adding $1,000 to its evaluation. The
atlas maps show them as a long line
extending south from the distillery, as
built in 1859. . . .
From
HABS/HAER West Overton Survey (1990),
page 3
________________________
Karen's Note: Surely
the problem with waste mash was solved
long before Abraham put up extra money to
expand the hog pens, adding the cost to
the distillery ledger books. Hog pens
would have been a part of normal farming
life, and the mash would have fed the
hogs from the beginning of distilling at
"Overton." The value of the
paragraph above lies in the description
of hog pens shown as being in a long line
extending south from the distillery.

Circa 1867 Hog Pens Next to West
Overton Distillery Building
Westmoreland County Historic Atlas
(1867); John Pritiskutch Productions
Photograph Created & Edited by K. R.
Overholt Critchfield © 2016
A cooper
shop to make the barrels was present by
at least 1850, when it produced 12,000
casks. The company ledger records only
minor numbers of barrels being sold to
locals, for more than enough of them were
used by the distillery (2,750 barrels in
1850) and the flour mill (10,800
barrels). In 1850, the distillery was
listed as entailing a capital investment
of $13,000, producing a gross income of
$17,990, and employing three men. The
mill required an investment of only
$3,000, but brought in $32,000.
From
HABS/HAER Report on West Overton (1990),
page 3
________________________
Karen's
Note: We should never gloss over
the continued profitablity of the
"Overton" flouring mill,
located at one end of the Distillery
Building. By 1850, Abraham's distilling
operation would have achieved 40 years of
production. He must have employed coopers
long before the statistics above were
recorded.
|
|
In 1855, just a few
years after becoming a full partner,
Jacob S. Overholt amicably gave up his
position in A. Overholt & Sons,
and the company name reverted to A.
and H. S. Overholt. Jacob left to
concentrate on Broad Ford, where he was
developing a new village that would
support a new distillery complex on the
banks of the Youghiogheny River. He took
as a partner his cousin Henry O.
Overholt (1813-1880), previously
known for weaving Overholt
"coverlids" (coverlets). When
the distillery was up and running, they
produced Monongahela Whiskey,
despite the fact that they were located
on the Youghiogheny River, not the
Monongahela. At Broad Ford, Jacob was
known for his business activity and
personal integrity, and for charity given
to those in need. He was considered to be
everybody's friend. Great things were
accomplished over the next few years, but
then came a tragedy that impacted the
Overholt family even more than it
impacted Broad Ford. On April 19,
1859, Abraham Overholt marked
his 75th birthday. The following day, April
20, 1859, Abraham and Maria
should have been celebrating their 50th
wedding anniversary. However, that was
the day their son Jacob died from
"his last illness." He was only
44 years old.
When Jacob died,
Abraham had been distilling at
"Overton" for 49 years. Yet, at
that point, he stepped up to purchase
Jacob's two-thirds interest in the Broad
Ford distillery complex, then formed A.
Overholt and Company with nephew
Henry O. Overholt. Henry was a son of
Abraham's older brother Martin
Overholt (1772-1835) and Catherine
Overholt (1781-1866), a distant
relative from Bucks County. Henry O.
Overholt kept his one-third interest in
the company that he and Jacob had built,
and thereafter, he and his Uncle Abraham
produced A. Overholt & Co.
Whiskey at Broad Ford.
The price Abraham
paid for Jacob's two-thirds interest in
the Broad Ford distillery complex would
have provided financial support for
Jacob's widow, Mary Fox
(1816-1895), and their seven surviving
children (Abraham, Isaac,
Mary Anne, Fenton,
Christian, Jacob,
Emma).
It was in 1859,
that the Overholts pulled down the stone
distillery and the brick flouring mill at
"Overton," and in their place,
built a combined mill and distillery
building. Abraham's new brick building
stood six stories high, and measured 100
feet long and 63 feet wide -- the
building still stands and is now used as
a museum. At the time the new flouring
mill was put to work, fifty barrels of
flour could be milled per day, and the
distillery could handle 200 bushels of
grain per day.
Also in 1859,
one of Abraham's grandsons, Abraham
Overholt Tinstman (1834-1915),
known as A. O. Tinstman,
augmented his managerial duties at A.
Overholt and Company by purchasing
600 acres of coal land near Broad Ford,
with his partner Joseph Rist,
and thereby paved another road towards
economic diversity. It should be noted
that at the end of the year, on December
19, 1859, another grandson of
Abraham Overholt would be ten years old,
namely Henry Clay Frick
(1849-1919).
|
Before
& After the War Between the States
|

Circa 1867 West Overton Farming &
Coking
1867 Westmoreland County Historic Atlas;
John Pritiskutch Productions;
Photograph Created & Edited by K. R.
Overholt Critchfield © 2016
|
|
The War Between the States,
our Civil War, was a great watershed
event in the history of the United States
of America. It truly was the worst of
times and the best of times, bringing
death and destruction, along with rapid
and amazing industrial advances. The
turmoil of simultaneous worst-and-best
scenarios affected everybody, young and
old, whether slave or free, and the
multitudes of strife suffered by the
population back then, continues to
reverberate into the present time. Our
Mennonite ancestors came to this
continent burdened by the strife of
religious and political persecution, and
the overwhelming experience of witnessing
the destruction of everything their own
ancestors had built up over generations.
The Civil War heightened old religious
and political arguments that brought new
waves of persecutions and the systematic
destruction of everything many families
had built up since the great
immigrations. The Overholts kept up with
the political rumblings of their time via
subscriptions to newspapers, like The
Herald, The Republican, and
The Chronicle. Of course, back
in the days of Abaham Lincoln, those who
called themselves Republicans had
different political views than what are
supported by many in today's Republican
Party, although some of the basic systems
of belief still echo in the halls of
local, state and federal government.
However, because "a picture is worth
a thousand words," we are able to
learn a great deal about the
accoutrements of being alive and living,
back when the fabric of our history was
being made.
A cursory study of the pre-Civil War
era reveals historic photographs made by
the first generations of photographers.
In America, two immigrants from Germany,
William and Frederick Langenheim, first
became famous for their daguerreotype
photography, making W. & F.
Langenheim famous in Philadelphia
(1843), then their panoramic pictures of
Niagra Falls (1845) brought them world
fame. Next came their patented technique
for coloring daguerreotype plates (1846),
their patented hyalotype glass slides
(1850). They introduced stereoscopy, and
were the first Americans to sell
stereocards to the public (American
Stereoscopic Company, 1850-1860),
and then were the first to produce
stereographs commercially in America. In
the meantime, they took the earliest
known interval timed pictures of a solar
eclipse (1854). I found a great many
Internet references featuring the
Langenheim Brothers, and examples of
their work are available online to study.
My curiosity about this subject was
spurred by the following photograph,
found at the new West Overton Village
Digital Archive, hosted by the Pittsburgh
Supercomputing Center, launched by
the folks at West Overton Village and
Museums. They have been working with
a number of individuals and archival
entities to setup an accessible online
interface to publish this new digital
archive. In the summer of 2017, the staff
began what will be a project requiring
many years of conservation work, with the
ultimate goal of creating a digital
resource of Overholt-related documents
and items for those students, historians,
and researchers wishing to study them
(see
https://wovdighistory.psc.edu/items/browse?page=1).
|
Abraham
Overholt at George Washington's Tomb
|

Circa 1858 ~ Daguerreotype of Abraham
Overholt at George Washington's Tomb;
Original from West Overton
Village Digital Archive; Copyright
© 2017 West Overton Village;
Photograph Tinted & Modified by K. R.
Overholt Critchfield © 2018 [See New
Material, below]
|
|
The archival data
from the West Overton Village Digital
Archive states the orginal version
of this picture is a daguerreotype
photograph of Abraham Overholt and
"two unknown men," and the date
is unknown, too. The original is very
dark and has spots and dots all over it,
perhaps from deteriorated silver, or even
residue from mercury. Daguerreotype
pictures were processed on a silver
surface and developed by mercury vapor.
The name comes from French inventor, L.
J. M. Daguerre (1789-1851).
I spent many hours
brightening the photo and cleaning away,
or blurring, dots from faces and suits,
and experimenting on ways to make the
ghostly figures look clear and solid,
with the limited tools at my disposal.
Then, it was necessary to do the same job
at least four more times, until the
overall result looked the best I could
make it. After a while, I decided to
ignore most of the dots and spots, and
focus on the three figures. The photo had
to be tinted, because this web page
series relies on tinted pictures. The
tinting actually made most of the
blemishes less noticeable, but my
untinted version actually looks a bit
better.
During my work, it seemed
to me that the foreground and middlemost
areas might have been manipulated by the
original photographer. Perhaps some wild
underbrush was cleared away by chemical
means, along with a few other details
that cannot be explained. For instance,
exactly what is Abraham sitting on? If it
is a bench, where are the supports? None
of the old images I found of the site
show any benches in that spot. And why,
in the original, do the lower legs and
feet of the central figure look
contrived? In my version, the pantlegs
and shoes were given special attention.
Once the offending dots
were cleared away, and the most grievous
distractions were attended to, the facial
similarity between Abraham and the
central figure was enhanced -- he must
have been one of Abraham's sons. The man
with the hat, and what appears to be a
closed umbrella, looked like another son.
A big question for me was, exactly which
two sons were there with Abraham on that
day? Also, what spurred the Overholts to
make the long journey from
"Overton" (most of the way
probably by train) to Virginia's Mount
Vernon, presenting themselves in what may
be their best suits of clothes?
Apparently, American
citizens visited the "new tomb"
of George Washington throughout the 19th
century. The "old tomb" was an
existing family vault that suffered
damage in succeeding years, and needed to
be replaced. In 1831, a
new brick structure was erected at Mount
Vernon, and the remains of George and
Martha Washington, as well as other
deceased members of the family, were
moved to the new brick tomb. In the 19th
century, the succeeding generation was
having hard times, so they sought an
offer from the Virginia government for
ownership of Mount Vernon, and then the
U. S. government in 1848,
but were refused. Ten years later, in 1858,
the Mount Vernon Ladies
Association of the Union bought the
property, and probably commissioned the
repairs shown being made in a circa 1859
photograph by William England (see
pictorial references below).
One Internet source
mentions a French visitor who wrote about
Mount Vernon, that it had become
"the resort of the travelers of all
nations who come within its
vicinity," adding that people were
coming to the site with "veneration
and respect," making "a
pilgrimage to the shrine of patriotism
and public worth . . . " An Internet
search for images of Washington's
mausoleum/tomb/grave reveals many
drawings, etchings and paintings of the
site from the 1800s.
Old photographs show
people gathered together to observe the
birthdate, the Presidency, or the death
of George Washington, so there may have
been an observance of that kind, in the 1850s,
one that Abraham Overholt and his sons
attended. I am only guessing it happened
circa 1858, because that
is when the property changed hands to the
ladies' association, and the ladies may
have staged a fund-raiser to support
repairs and renovations. Also, I found
two pictures of the site by photographers
who, around that time, were making images
of historic sites for stereocards,
similar to the picture above, and one of
them was made by The Langenheim Brothers
(see pictorial references below).
My getting to see the
original daguerreotype online was both
sad and glorious. It was sad because of
the deteriorated condition of the photo.
On the other hand, it was a glorious
experience, because I was seeing a
picture of my ancestors as tourists. It
looks like a summer day in Virginia, and
they look hot and tired, and might have
felt a bit out of place. Moreover, they
looked so human. The first face I studied
was Abraham's, and considering his age,
to my mind, he would not have traveled to
Mount Vernon alone -- he would have been
accompanied by a few of his sons.
Therefore, the central figure may be
Jacob, and the man with the hat may be
Henry, and if so, this photograph shows
the three most commercially important men
of Abraham Overholt's "Overton"
and his whiskey business. Also, it may
represent the last time Abraham was
photographed together with his sons Henry
and Jacob.
If the central figure is
Jacob, this image was taken before April
19, 1859, Abraham's 75th
birthday, because Jacob died the
following day, on April 20, 1859,
at 44 years of age. So, does the man in
the middle look about 44 years old, or is
he a different Overholt son? Abraham's
next oldest son was his namesake, and my
great-great grandfather, Abraham
S. Overholt (1817-1863), who was
42 in the summer of 1859. If the man in
the middle is not Jacob, and not son
Abraham, then he may be Martin S.
Overholt (1822-1899), or Christian
S. Overholt (1824-1911). We need
to see more photographs of the family.
And let us not forget,
there is another person on the scene to
ask about -- the man behind the camera.
Who was the photographer? Maybe it was A.
N. Stauffer, the photographer from
Scottdale, or a local from the Mount
Vernon area, or maybe he was one of the
Langenheim brothers. To me, this was an
amazing photograph of my ancestors. An
original view of the artifact is included
in the pictorial references below,
showing how it actually appears, except
for a reduction in the dpi and
size. Perhaps someone who is more adept
at renovating old photographs will do far
better work to bring this moment in
history back to life, so to speak.
|
Arrivals
at the Principal Hotels
During another session of Internet
research, I found evidence of how busy
Abraham was just before the Civil War
began. A newspaper in Philadelphia,
published July 6, 1860,
revealed that A. Overholt
and D. P. Patterson from
"Overton" had checked in at The
Union Hotel, located on "Arch
Street, above Third." On that date,
Abraham was more than six months into his
76th year. As for his companion, the HABS
West Overton Survey identifies D. P.
Patterson, whose name appears on one of
the inscriptions on the lintels of the
1859 Distillery Building -- he was the
millwright who built it. |

Arrivals at the Principal Hotels,
Philadelphia Press, Friday,
July 06, 1860; Page: 3
Photo Created by K. R. Overholt
Critchfield © 2016
|
|
ARRIVALS AT
THE PRINCIPAL HOTELS
UP TO 12 O'CLOCK
LAST NIGHT.
THE
UNION HOTEL -- Arch street, above
Third.
|
|
|
Chas Bracht, Balt
W Lipper, Phila
A. Overholt, Overton
E G Dalton, Chester, Pa
Thos A Boult, Hagerstown
W P Hammond, Phila
A H Peacock, Reading
Wm Cree, Kansas Ter
John Faulkner & la, Pa
F O'Brine N J
Mrs Ratcliff Altlantic City
Saml Ratcliff, Atlantic City
L M Kaufman, Troy, N Y
Wm Major, Pottsville
F M Wheeler, N Y
. |
H J Bailey, Pittsburg
T C Worth, Wilm. N C
D P Patterson, Overton
H W Stokes, N J
A K Lyester, Hagarstown
A G Cox, Del
Col R Ratcliff, Tamaqua
F W Haines, Newark, Del
Geo Brown, Tamaqua
Geo M Odenwelder, Kaston
Jas Ralston & la, N J
Jas Ralson, Atlantic City
Geo W Lawson, N Y
A D Miller, Schuylkill co
. |
|
|
*
* * New Material * * *
|

1860 Ambrotype of Abraham Overholt at
George Washington's Tomb;
Original Photograph by Stephen Ford
© 2018, Modified by K. R. Overholt
Critchfield © 2018
|
|
~ ~ Abraham
At George Washington's Tomb Update ~ ~
A duplicate of the picture showing
Abraham Overholt and two others at George
Washington's Tomb has surfaced, owned by
Stephen Ford, a member of The Extended
Overholt Family. Stephen is a son of Barbara
B. Ford (1922-2007), the OFA
genealogist who compiled and edited The
Oberholtzer Book. Years ago, Stephen
kindly helped me put together a web page
about his mother [see Memoir: Barbara
Babst Ford]. The MC line of their
"O" family tree includes the
following. Abraham
Overholt > Christian Stauffer Overholt
> Annie May Overholt >
Katherine Overholt Law > Barbara Jane
Babst > Stephen Overholt Ford
In the middle of March 2018, Stephen
sent me an email, with a subject line of Photo
of Abraham Overholt. Naturally, I
expected him to be commenting on the 1865
Photograph of Abraham Overholt that
appears on this page below. However, it
was the picture taken at George
Washington's Tomb that spurred him to
write and attach four amazing pictures.
|

Abraham Overholt At George
Washington's Tomb #2
Originals from the Collection of Stephen
Ford © 2018
Four Small Views by K. R.
Overholt Critchfield © 2018
|
|
Hi, Karen, Recently, I came across
your web page with the photo of Abraham
Overholt at George Washington's tomb. I
happen to have what appears to be an
original [or original copy?] of that
photograph, which is encased in a Union
Case. A number of years ago, I removed
the photo, glass and brass mat from the
case and found that a piece of paper had
been placed underneath it. I was able to
remove most of the paper, which revealed
the following handwritten note.
Tomb of
Washington
Mt Vern... 3 July 1860 [although
it's possible that it says 13 or 23, but
that seems unlikely to me]
Abraham Over....
D....Patterson
................ [another name
probably, but almost entirely torn out]
The rest of the note
appears to be solidly adhered to the back
of the glass.
Next, in your
article you mention finding the
Philadelphia newspaper, published on July
6, 1860, which recorded the arrival of
Abraham Overholt and D.P. Patterson at
the Union Hotel. This would coincide with
a July 3 visit to Mt. Vernon. I would
have to conclude that this is the same
D.P. Patterson in the photo.
I passed my
"new" information on to the
West Overton Village Digital Archive, and
also referred them to your research on
the photo and D.P. Patterson.
On a more technical note, my copy
consists of a glass "sandwich":
2 pieces of glass with a black coating on
the back of the bottom piece. Based on
this, I believe it to be an ambrotype,
whereas the WOVDA copy is a
daguerreotype, according to them.
Interestingly, the "spots" on
the photos appear to be in exactly the
same location, as is what appears to be a
crack above the man standing at right
[somewhat like an inverted
"C"]. Not knowing much about
the photographic processes of the 1860s,
I can't speculate on how duplicate copies
came to be made, but these clearly are
the same photograph.
- Stephen Overholt Ford,
March 2018
|
|
Presented with new possibilities,
more research was necessary. For
instance, what was the difference between
a daguerreotype
photo and an ambrotype
photo? |
|
The ambrotype
. . . is a positive photograph on glass
made by a variant of the wet plate
collodion process. Like a print on
paper, it is viewed by reflected light.
Like the daguerreotype, which it
replaced, and like the prints produced by
a Polaroid camera, each is a unique
original that could only be duplicated by
using a camera to copy it . . .
In the U.S.,
ambrotypes first came into use in the
early 1850s. In 1854, James Ambrose
Cutting of Boston took out several
patents relating to the process . . . By
the late 1850s, the ambrotype was
overtaking the daguerreotype in
popularity. By the mid-1860s, the
ambrotype itself was being replaced by
the tintype, a similar image on a sturdy
black-lacquered thin iron sheet, as well
as by photographic albumen paper prints
made from glass plate collodion
negatives.
Ambrotype,
Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambrotype)
The
ambrotype process was patented in
1854 and enjoyed great popularity for a
few short years, and again during the
Civil War. It produced pictures on glass
instead of metal plates. Like the earlier
daguerreotype, each image is unique, made
one-at-a-time in the camera. The glass is
flowed with a sticky material known as
iodized collodion. It is then sensitized
by being dipped into a bath of silver
nitrate, and exposed in the camera while
still wet. A chemical developer is used
to bring out the image. The glass plate
is then backed with black
material--paint, cloth or paper--and
furnished in a case similar to those used
for daguerreotypes. The ambrotype process
was marketed as an improvement, because
the finished image lacked the glittery,
elusive reflective quality of
daguerreotypes and was therefore easier
to view. The detail and tonal range,
however, tend to be less impressive than
in the earlier process.
A PRIMER
ON PROCESSES, The American Museum of
Photography
(https://www.photographymuseum.com/primer.html)
Until the ambrotype
came along in 1851, when an Englishman
named Frederick Scott Archer developed an
inexpensive technique to expose
photographic images on thin sheets of
glass, the daguerreotype was the only
type of photograph available. Made of
copper plates faced with silver,
daguerreotypes were expensive and
fragile, which is why they were housed in
sealed cases to keep their polished
surfaces from tarnishing due to contact
with fresh air. In 1854, an American
named James Cutting filed three patents
for new ambrotype processesin a
curious footnote, Cutting changed his
middle name from Anson to Ambrose,
perhaps to more closely associate himself
with ambrotypes in the same way that
Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre was linked
by his name to daguerreotypes.
Like daguerreotypes
and some of the tintypes that came a bit
later, ambrotypes were also cased to
protect them. Its not that their
surfaces were as sensitive as those of
daguerreotypes. Rather, it was the glass
ambrotype itself that was at risk. Hinged
cases, usually made of wood and covered
in leather, did the trick. The ambrotype
was placed within this case in layers,
somewhat like a sandwich. There was the
ambrotype (with or without a black
background, which was required to keep
the image from resembling a negative),
topped by a layer of brass matting to
frame the image and protect it from
another layer of glass on top of that.
Holding these pieces together was the
preserver, also made of brass, all of
which was then secured in the case, which
was lined with velvet or silk.
The heyday of ambrotypes in the United
States was brief, from 1854 to 1865, when
uncased tintypes took over. . . .
Antique
Ambrotype Photographs, Collectors Weekly
(https://www.collectorsweekly.com/photographs/ambrotypes)
|
|
An Internet search will yield a
number of web sites with detailed
information about ambrotype photography,
as well as many images. If you are really
interested in this period of history, or
this era of photography, you can easily
spend several hours looking at images. Regarding
Stephen's ambrotype, it is unfortunate
that the message on the backing paper is
damaged, but it includes a date we can
use -- 3 July 1860. It also gives us two
names, Abraham Overholt and D. P.
Patterson, the millwright who built the
six-story "Overton" Mill and
Distillery Building, in 1859. It was
Patterson who checked in at The Union
Hotel, with Abraham, before midnight
on July 6, 1860, as published in The
Philadelphia Press the following
day. The seated man in the picture is
Abraham, and the man in the middle looks
so much like Abraham that he must be one
of his sons. The figure at the right,
holding the top hat and folded umbrella
must be Patterson.
The backing paper includes another
line of identification, but it is torn.
The letters "hers" or
"thers" can be seen, so we can
wonder if that word is photographers
or brothers. Could the
photographer have been one of two
Overholt brothers?
|
|

"Tomb of Washington; Mt Vernon 3
July 1860; Abraham Overholt; D. P.
Patterson; ...-thers"
Original Photograph by Stephen Ford ©
2018; Modified by K. R. Overholt
Critchfield © 2018 |
|
*
* * End of Update * * *
Life
and Death Transitions
There came the days when Abraham's
other sons and grandsons began to take
over more responsibilities as the
accountants, managers, and entrepreneurs
of the Overholt businesses. However, the Civil
War (1861-1865) intervened,
pulling away many men from the
"Overton" neighborhood to serve
in the Union cause. During the war, in 1863,
Abraham composed his Last Will and
Testament. This was the year when
his third son and namesake, Abraham
Stauffer Overholt
(1817-1863), died in May, leaving behind
widow Mary Ann Newmyer
and four children (George W.,
John S., Norman,
Mary). [This Abraham
S. Overholt was Karen's great-great
grandfather; his son George Washington
Overholt was Karen's great grandfather.] The following year, 1864,
Henry O. Overholt sold out his one-third
interest in Broad Ford's A. Overholt
and Company, and retired to his
family farm. At that time, A. O. Tinstman
became his grandfather's partner in the
firm, having earned a reputation as a
successful manager and businessman, who
had kept the Broad Ford distillery
complex progressive and profitable.
At the close of
America's Civil War, young men from
"Overton" were among the
casualties. Several had died in battle or
from diseases contracted during the
campaigns, but finally the war was over,
and many sons and grandsons returned home
to regain their health and renew their
marriages. Some could look forward to
building a future in a rapidly changing
world, or simply go back to working a
family farm. Others could anticipate
pairing up for weddings and setting up
their own households. Meanwhile, at Broad
Ford, about 1866, the
Overholts tore down the existing
distillery and completely rebuilt it, no
doubt with local labor. Then they updated
whiskey production at the
"Overton" distillery.
In March
1866, Abraham and Maria lost
their older daughter, Anna S.
Overholt (1812-1866). Anna was
the wife of John Tinstman
(1807-1877), and mother of 10 children (Maria,
Jacob, Abraham
[A. O. Tinstman], Henry,
Anna, John,
Elizabeth, Abigail,
Emma, Christian).
Anna suffered the death of 15-year old
Maria on May 30, 1846,
and the following month, on June
15, 1846, she lost Elizabeth, a
month before her third birthday. During
the war, Anna's sons Henry and John
served with the esteemed 15th Regiment
Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry, the
Anderson Troops. Henry was a captain and
survived the war, but John died on October
3, 1862, following the Battle of
Antietam. In November 1865,
Anna had to bear 19-year old Abigail's
death, then four months later, on March
29, 1866, Anna, herself, died.
Those were hard times for the immediate
and extended family.
|
|

Circa 1867 West Overton Coal &
Coke Industry ~ 1867 Westmoreland County
Historic Atlas;
John Pritiskutch Productions; Photograph
Created & Edited by K. R. Overholt
Critchfield © 2016
|
|
Nearly four years passed,
and Abraham and Maria passed through the
"elderly" stage of life, and
reached the time of "growing old
together," sharing the good times
and the bad times that invariably came
with an ever-growing family. Then one of
them "passed on." In the early
morning of January 15, 1870,
three months before his 86th birthday,
Abraham was struck down, perhaps by a
heart attack or stroke, and he died at
the age of 85. He was buried in Mount
Pleasant Cemetery, located in Mount
Pleasant, PA, near "Overton." |
|

1865 Photograph of Abraham Overholt;
A. N. Stauffer, Photographer;
Original from West Overton Village
Digital Archive;
Copyright © 2017 West Overton Village;
Photo Modified by K. R. Overholt
Critchfield © 2018
On Saturday morning, January 15, at
his residence in East Huntingdon
township, Westmoreland county, Pa.,
ABRAHAM OVERHOLT, in the 86th year of his
age. He arose in the morning in usual
health and took the lantern and went out,
and not returning, the family went to
look for him and found him in an
out-house and the lamp of life almost
extinguished. He was buried on the 18th
in the Mennonite burying ground in said
township, followed by a large concourse
of relatives and friends. The occasion
was improved by ___ Woodbury of the
Baptist church in the English language,
and by Bro. Blough in German. Bro.
Overholt was a faithful member of the
Mennonite church for many years, and the
church has reason to mourn for him. His
seat was seldom vacant at public worship,
and he was one of the most benevolent men
the church had. When any benevolent
purpose demanded it he was always willing
and ready to give of his abundance. C. S.
From Herald of Truth
Obituaries
Herald Of Truth, Volume VII,
Number 3;
March, 1870; page 46-47
|
|
Thereafter, 78-year-old Maria
remained in Abraham's Homestead House,
the house he had built for her in the
29th year of their marriage. The 1870
Census was probably generated before
Abraham's death, for he is listed as
"Abram Overholt, 85, ret [retired]
manufacturer." Along with "wife
Mariah," their granddaughter Maria
Overholt Frick (1848-1939) was
still living in the house, as were
domestic servant Joan Raymin,
18, and three children named Hait.
The census also identified a woman named Margaret
Hait, 36, a tollgate keeper, who
lived elsewhere in "Overton"
with five other children. |
West
Overton After Abraham

Circa 1867 The Spring House & Abraham's
Homestead House ~ 1867 Westmoreland County
Historic Atlas;
John Pritiskutch Productions; Photograph Created
& Edited by K. R. Overholt Critchfield ©
2016
When Abraham died, Maria had already
experienced the loss of four of her eight
children. John died in September
1846, at 20 years of age, having
never been married. Jacob died in April
1859, at the age of 44 years,
leaving widow Mary Fox
and seven children. Son Abraham had died
in May 1863, at 46 years
of age, leaving behind widow Mary
Ann Newmyer and four children.
Then Anna died in March 1866,
at the age of 53, leaving husband John
Tinstman and their six surviving
children. Only six months after
burying Abraham, Maria faced the death of
her firstborn, Henry. On June 18,
1870, two months before his 60th
birthday, Henry S. Overholt died after a
long illness, leaving behind his widow, Abigail
Carpenter, and their seven
children to carry on without him. The
following month, Maria turned 79. Since
she celebrated her 18th birthday, she had
never been without her husband, Abram, on
her birthday.
The energy and
guidance of Abraham, Henry and Jacob must
have been missed, and certainly, a great
many things at "Overton"
changed in succeeding years. However, the
surviving Overholt sons and grandsons
continued the whiskey business, with new
endeavors in coal mining and coke
production, along with financial
interests in local banking, industrial
manufacturing, and railroad companies.
Special note must be taken of A. O.
Tinstman's work towards organizing and
building the Mt. Pleasant and Broad
Ford Railroad, that connected with
the Pittsburgh and Connellsville
Railroad. As a testament of the
strength of Abraham's distilling company,
nearly a year after his death, and five
months after Henry's passing, Overholt
whiskey from West Overton was still being
advertised in newspapers and sold in
stores under the company name A. &
H. S. Overholt.
|
|

Whiskies; The Evening
Telegraph, September 15, 1870;
Fifth Edition, Philadelphia, PA; Page 5;
Photo Created & Edited by K. R.
Overholt Critchfield © 2016
|
|
During the winter of 1874,
Maria Stauffer Overholt died at the age
of 83. She was buried next to her
"Abram" in the Mount Pleasant
Cemetery, where many family members and
extended family are buried. Only three of
Maria's eight children survived her death
-- Elizabeth, Martin
and Christian, but we
have no evidence they were all present at
her burial. The winter weather may have
kept Elizabeth from attending, for she
was living with her family in Ohio, but
Martin and his family may have been
living in or near West Overton, and
Christian and his family probably were
living in Mount Pleasant at that time. I
believe it is imperative to get more
details about this event, in order to
properly tell the story. Our genealogical
resources tell us Martin died on June
27, 1899, but Elizabeth and
Christian lived into the next century,
with Elizabeth passing away on October
1, 1905, and Christian dying on February
1, 1911.
Martin
Stauffer Overholt (1822-1899)
died three months before his 77th
birthday, and was laid to rest in the
Mount Pleasant Cemetery, where his wife, Maria
Wakefield (1827-1886), was
buried; they had six children together.
Elizabeth Stauffer Overholt Frick (1819-1905)
passed away in Wooster, Ohio, and was
buried where her husband, John
Wilson Frick (1822-1888), was
laid to rest, in the Wooster Cemetery,
Wooster, Ohio. They brought six children
into the world, and the graves of most of
them are found in the Wooster Cemetery. Christian
Stauffer Overholt (1824-1911)
died in Pittsburgh, but was buried in the
Mount Pleasant Cemetery, where his wife, Catherine
L. Newmyer (1831-1894) would be
laid. Together they brought six children
into the world, and for a time, their
home in Mount Pleasant became the Mount
Pleasant Hospital.
|
New
Data About Maria's Death
I never managed to find a newspaper
article that reported the death of Maria
Stauffer Overholt. This seemed quite
strange, for Maria must have been as
impressive a figure as her husband,
Abraham, at least in the neighborhood of
West Overton. I found no obituary that
told about a funeral service, mentioned
the clergyman who had presided, noted who
had attended, and listed the surviving
family members. In several genealogies
compiled by Rev. A. J. Fretz, November
1874 was given as Maria's date
of death. Barbara B. Ford's The
Oberholtzer Book gives the same
information, 11/1874, so
it appeared that we could not mark our
calendars to remember the day she passed
away.
The whole matter changed in September
2017, when my request to the folks at West
Overton Museums for more information
produced a jpg of an obituary
about Maria, taken from their Archives.
The obit is in the form of a narrow,
single-column news story, with no
information attached regarding the source
of the clipping, the date it was written,
or the date it was published, so it may
or may not be from a local newspaper. The
article was typed in Roman font, and to
me, it looks like someone taped together
the full text to create the single
column. The margins are not uniform
throughout, despite the use of justified
paragraphs, where lines have extra space
between words, in order to make the left
and right margins uniform.
Perhaps some of the information given
was taken from a newspaper article, or
the details were considered to be common
knowledge. Perhaps it was typed for a
church bulletin, perhaps for a
congregation other than the one Maria
belonged to. The language used and the
formulation of the message remind me of
other obits I have seen from that period,
but the final paragraph changes tone
dramatically, suggesting that two
different people contributed to the
content. For many reasons then, it
appears the article was written to
commemorate Maria's passing, composed on
the day of her burial, or perhaps after
she had already been buried.
A good deal of incidental information
is contained in the article, so that, in
a very touching way, we are able to
glimpse something about our ancestor's
personal life and actual personality, as
she lived her final years. The full text
follows.
|
|
In
Memoriam.
During the last
century, a Mr. Stauffer and wife moved
into the wilds of Western Pennsylvania
and settled near what is now Fountain
Mills, or Everson, in Fayette County, on
the 18th of July, 1791. A daughter
was born to them whom they named
Maria. At the age of eighteen,
Maria was married to Abraham
Overholt. About the same time, they
both united with the Mennonite Church, of
which they lived and died members.
Soon after marriage
they began housekeeping in a little stone
house in West Overton, which is still
standing. They afterwards occupied
a log house nearby, and lastly the fine
brick residence from which grandmother
Overholt has just been borne by loving
friends to her final resting place.
Jan. 15, 1870, Mr.
Overholt died, after they had lived
together something over 60 years.
On Sabbath, November 1st, 1874, Mrs.
Maria Stauffer Overholt passed from
earth, having attained the ripe age of
eighty-three years, three months and
eighteen days, and having lived on the
same farm sixty-five years. She was
the mother of eight children, only three
of whom survive her. At the time of
her death she had also forty-eight
grand-children and twenty-five
great-grand-children. Her mind
remained clear to the last, and her heart
never lost that preeminent kindness for
which her life was so
distinguished. The peace with which
she waited the time of her departure was
never apparently disturbed. Just
before she passed away, her life seemed
to be repeating itself, and she lived
over in words and thoughts her life of
thirty or forty years ago.
Although feeble in
body for some time, she never lost her
all-controlling desire to make others
happy. As she was in life, so she
remained, peaceful, tender and gentle,
loving and beloved, and so she
died. It is truly a loss not to
have such an one to care for. But
we must speak a word of the departed as a
mother. Although so far removed in
age from the rising generation, she was
their special friend and favorite, and a
very gratifying evidence of it is the
impress she left upon their minds for
doing good.
And we must not omit
the mention of one for which thousands
will yet arise to call her blessed.
To her more than to any other person do
we owe the existence of Mt. Pleasant
Institute. While she only gave
$5,000 herself, yet it is from her
children and grandchildren, and we may
hope from her great-grand-children, has
already come and will continue to come,
at least one-half of the financial
support of the Institute. When the
first $100,000 is made up, her name will
be connected with about $60,000 of
it. Nor are Messrs. C. S. Overholt
and A. O. Tinstman, her son and
grand-son, the only subscribers, but
there are a considerable number of very
liberal subscriptions from others
similarly related. The marble in
the cemetery will speak feeble words
compared with this monument to Christian
learning, which will yield its fruits as
long as time lasts.
Overholt, Maria
Stauffer, Obituary In Memoriam.
Box 1, Folder C19.
West Overton Village and Museums,
Scottdale, Pennsylvania.
|
|
Some of the data given in the article
does not match information we have today.
For instance, Along the Banks of
Jacobs Creek reports that the
Abraham Stauffer family "appears in
the 1790 census of Tyrone Twp., Fayette
Co. with four males under 16 and four
females." Also given, "On 3-Mar
1790 Abraham Stauffer of Lancaster Co.,
yoeman, bought 278 acres from Benjamin
Wells of Tyrone Twp. for 320 pounds . . .
." He purchased other tracts of land
in the area, after that time. Maria was
born on July 13, 1791,
so it appears she and her sister
Elizabeth, who was born January
19, 1794, were born in Fayette
County. On another point, Abraham and
Maria were wed April 20, 1809,
so Maria was at least three months from
her 18th birthday, when she became
Abraham's wife. Also, it is valuable to
remember that both had been raised in
devout Mennonite families. Maria's father
was a Mennonite preacher and bishop, and
historically, there were plenty of clergy
in the Oberholtzer/Overholt families, as
well. Abraham and Maria may have become
Christians and full members of their
church some years before becoming husband
and wife. Many sources corroborate that
Abraham and Maria were devout members of
the Mennonite Church all their lives. In
fact, their own home was used as a local
Mennonite meeting house.
Let us note that the marriage was a
good 61 years and three months long. If
the day of Maria's death really was
November 1, 1874, then she had lived 83
years, three months and eighteen days,
just as reported. However, this is only a
single source, and we really need more
than one. Tentatively, then, perhaps we
know what day Maria died, but do we know
where she died?
Many years ago, my grandfather, George
Frederick Overholt (1892-1966),
told my mother a bit of family history
about Maria, Abraham's widow. He said
that after giving over the care of her
house to others in the family, Maria was
set up to live in the Spring House, where
she was pretty much forgotten by
everybody, and then she died. If true,
this would be a very sad tale, but my
mother was sure about it, because my
grandfather had been adamant.
Because of my questions about this
matter, the museum coordinator at West
Overton wrote, "We are not aware of
Maria living in the Springhouse [sic]
prior to her death. According to a family
diary, she remained living in the second
floor northeast bedroom of the homestead
until her death in 1874. Maria F.
Overholt, who previously lived in the
third story of the home, moved into the
adjoining northwest bedroom following
Abraham's death in 1870. The diary places
the box containing John Overholt's
possessions under Maria Frick Overholt's
bed in the second story northwest bedroom
. . . We do not have a record of Maria's
funeral in our archive . . . The box
containing John Overholt's possessions is
mentioned in a family diary, though there
appears to be no record of the box or its
contents after Maria's death. Many
furnishings and decorations of the house
were replaced or removed after Aaron S R
and Sarah Overholt moved into the home in
1874."
However, along with the testimony
given by my grandfather, I have the story
of the day I visited West Overton for the
first time, back in the autumn of
1984. The lady who was my guide
did more than show me around Abraham's
House. She also opened the Spring House
for me, and led the way up the steps to
the loft, "to see the cot where
Maria slept." Once there, the lady
knelt down and pulled out from under the
cot a very old, long carton, opened the
lid, and let me see Maria's keepsakes. I
cannot remember what was inside the
carton, for I quickly looked away,
feeling we were disturbing something
quite private. Remembering that day, and
considering all the changes made in
recent years to the West Overton
buildings and grounds, I wonder what
became of Maria's cot, and the carton
with all the things she held so dear.
Moreover, how did it come to pass that
the folks currently running the events at
West Overton misplaced such a poignant
story about Maria's last days?
|
They
Were Great-Great-Grandchildren of Martin
Oberholtzer,
Great-Grandchildren of Henrich Oberholtzer,
Grandchildren of Abraham Overholt, First-Cousins
& Second-Cousins
What do we know about the Overholt
families that lived in the Abraham
Overholt Homestead House after the deaths
of Abraham and Maria? First, it is
essential to know that John S. R.
Overholt (1837-1925) and Aaron
S. R. Overholt (1837-1905) were
twins. They were sons of
Mennonite minister and bishop Rev.
John D. Overholt (1795-1878) and
Elizabeth Stauffer
(1804-1842), who were parents of seven
children. John D. was a son of Jacob
Overholt (1768-1847), a son of Henrich
Oberholtzer. Elizabeth was a
daughter of Christian Stauffer
(1778-1852) and Agnes Overholt
(1773-1845), Agnes being a daughter of
Henrich's younger brother, Martin
Oberholtzer. Martin
Oberholtzer (ca.1709-1744) > Henrich
Oberholtzer > Jacob Overholt > Rev.
John D. Overholt > John S. R. &
Aaron S. R. Overholt
Martin
Oberholtzer (ca.1709-1744) > Martin
Oberholtzer > Agnes Overholt >
Elizabeth Stauffer > John S. R. &
Aaron S. R. Overholt
Therefore, the twins
were great-great-grandchildren of our
ancestor Martin Oberholtzer, father of
Henrich and namesake Martin Oberholtzer.
They also were
grand-nephews of Abraham Overholt.
Notably, both John and Aaron honorably
served three years in the Civil War,
fighting for the Union. They managed to
survive the war, then returned to
"Overton," looking forward to
building a future in their own home town,
where plenty of business activity
beckoned. Additionally, both men married
well.
Martin
Oberholtzer (ca.1709-1744) > Henrich
Oberholtzer > Abraham Overholt >
Elizabeth S. Overholt > Maria O. Frick
Martin
Oberholtzer (ca.1709-1744) > Henrich
Oberholtzer > Abraham Overholt >
Henry S. Overholt > Sarah Ann Overholt
Maria
Overholt Frick (1848-1939) was a
granddaughter of Abraham Overholt and
Maria Stauffer, brought into their home
as a small child and raised to maturity.
Young Maria was the first child of their
daughter Elizabeth Stauffer
Overholt (1819-1905), wife of John
W. Frick (1822-1889). Maria O.
Frick was a great-granddaughter of Henrich
Oberholtzer. In Abraham
Overholt's Last Will and Testament,
he bequeathed to this granddaughter the
sum of $2,000, which was a considerable
sum in those days, and he may have set
aside that money so that she could have a
fine wedding one day. In 1872,
young Maria married Abraham's
grand-nephew, her second-cousin, John
S. R. Overholt. To a community
accustomed to seeing young Maria growing
up in Abraham's House, it must have
appeared perfectly natural to see her
take over running it, sometime following
Abraham's death, or sometime following
her wedding, or sometime after beginning
a new Overholt family.
Grace M.
Overholt may have been born in
the Homestead House, on October
25, 1872. Roughly two years
later, sometime in 1874,
the family moved to Wooster, Ohio, where
many Frick family members had already
relocated. In Wooster, about November
11, 1875, young Maria gave birth
to Jay, but he died the
following year on July 21, 1876.
The following spring, on April
19, 1877, Karl Frick
Overholt was born -- a birthday
that must have seemed advantageous, for
his great-grandfather Abraham had been
born on April 19. As it
happened, many years later, it was Karl
who kept petitioning his cousin, Helen
C. Frick, to preserve West
Overton, until she decided to do so. In
the deep mid-winter of 1881,
Maria and John welcomed baby Lucy
into the world, but she died seven days
later, and was buried on February
27, 1881. One more child, John
D. Overholt was born in 1886
-- I have no other information about him.
The
next Overholt family that lived in
Abraham's House was that of Aaron
S. R. Overholt and wife Sarah
Ann Overholt (1846-1921). Like
Maria and John, both Sarah Ann and Aaron
were great-grandchildren of Henrich
Oberholtzer.
Second-cousins
Sarah Ann and Aaron were married on January
6, 1869. Their wedding occurred
almost exactly one year before Abraham
Overholt died. Abraham and Maria probably
attended the event, for Sarah Ann was the
firstborn child of their firstborn, Henry
S. Overholt. Henry and wife Abigail
Carpenter may have provided a lovely
wedding for their daughter. Among the
guests must have been Aaron's twin
brother John, and 20-year-old Maria O.
Frick probably was there, too, with her
grandparents.
At some
point in time, after Maria and John moved
their family to Ohio, Sarah Ann and Aaron
took over the Homestead House with their
son, Ralph (1870-1956),
who, born June 23, 1870,
must have been about four years old. Clyde
(1876-1921) was born about two
years after that, on June 25,
1876, which was almost exactly
six years after his brother had been
born.
Three
members of this family died while living
there -- Aaron died at age 68, the widow
Sarah Ann at age 74, and son Clyde died
shortly after his mother passed away, at
45 years of age. Ralph may have left the
house when, on October 26, 1899,
at age 29, he married Mary Etta
Husband (1876-1948). At some
point in time, Ralph moved to Pittsburgh,
where he was a manager in the Pittsburgh
office of the United States Iron Pipe
& Foundry Company. Ralph, Mary
Etta, and daughter Margaret
(b. March 17, 1901)
lived in a fine house in the
same neighborhood where cousin Henry Clay
Frick established his own home, called
Clayton.
The
Scottdale Cemetery holds the earthly
remains of Aaron and Sarah Ann, Ralph and
Mary Etta, and Clyde.
|
|
The
John S. R. Overholt Family
John
S. R. Overholt (12/13/1837 -
12/17/1925)
m (1872) Maria O. Frick
(2/9/1848 - 12/24/1939)
5 Children
Grace M. Overholt (10/25/1872 -
4/4/1894)
Jay Overholt (abt. 11/11/1875 -
7/21/1876)
Karl F. Overholt (4/19/1877 - 1/29/1938)
Lucy Overholt (b. mid-Feb. 1881 - buried
2/27/1881)
John D. Overholt (b. 1886 - xxxx)
~ ~ o ~
~
The
Aaron S. R. Overholt Family
Aaron
S. R. Overholt (12/13/1837 -
12/27/1905)
m (1869) Sarah Ann Overholt (12/12/1846
- 7/24/1921)*
2 Children
Ralph Overholt (6/23/1871 - 6/26/1956)
Clyde Overholt (6/25/1876 - 10/28/1921)*
~ ~ o ~
~
|
|
* Recorder of
Deeds, Westmoreland County, PA; Deed
Book 197, p. 49, dated May
31, 1890,
states Sarah Ann died July 24,
1921, and Clyde died on October
28, 1921.
|
From
the 1800s to the 1900s
|

A. Overholt and Company: Registered
Distillery No. 3 - 23rd District, Fayette
Co., Pa.
Sanborn's Surveys of Whiskey Warehouses,
1894; Sanborn-Perris Map Company
Photograph Created & Edited by K. R.
Overholt Critchfield © 2016
|
|
The first federal trademark
law came in 1881. Eighteen years
after the death of Abraham Overholt, in
the year 1888, the
impressive A. Overholt and Company distillery
complex at Broad Ford launched the brand
name OLD OVERHOLT, with a label that
included a drawing that represented
Abraham Overholt. Today's web site of the
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office provides
public records with valuable information.
August 1, 1888, was the First
Use in Commerce date for a Portrait
of A. Overholt, deceased for the
name brand OLD OVERHOLT rye whiskey.
Elsewhere, there is some evidence
pointing to an earlier label without a
portrait. The product came out when one
of Abraham's grandsons, Henry Clay
Frick (1849-1919), owned most of
Broad Ford, including the distillery
complex, adjacent coal mining properties,
and coke production areas. He was a son
of Abraham's younger daughter, Elizabeth
S. Overholt (1819-1905) and John
W. Frick (1822-1888). By that
time, West Overton's "Clay"
Frick would have been known as "Mr.
Frick, the coal king." The year 1888
was personally significant, as well,
because his father died on August
31, in Wooster, Ohio, and his
younger daughter, Helen (1888-1984),
was born on September 3,
in Pittsburgh, PA.
|
|

1894 The A. Overholt and Company
Distillery Building
Sanborn's Surveys of Whiskey Warehouses,
1894; Sanborn-Perris Map Company
Photograph Created & Edited by K. R.
Overholt Critchfield © 2016
|
|
Despite his regional success in coal
and coke, H. C. Frick did not rebrand A.
Overholt and Company with his own
name. Frick retained the company name,
and rebranded Abraham's rye whiskey as
OLD OVERHOLT, because the name Overholt
was still worthy of respect. He banked on
the impressive reputation of the Overholt
name in business, with their networks of
distribution, and excellent sales in a
nationwide market. Mostly, he banked on
the distinctive Overholt rye whiskey,
made famous at West Overton during his
grandfather's lifetime, with the industry
and expertise of his uncles, Henry and
Jacob. Additionally, Frick may have
appreciated the enterprise of his uncle,
Jacob S. Overholt, who had built the
Broad Ford distillery complex, with Henry
O. Overholt. He may have appreciated the
improvements made by his grandfather,
Abraham Overholt, as well as the fine
management given by A. O. Tinstman, and
others in the family who had worked
there. |
|

OLD OVERHOLT WHISKEY Bottled in Bond;
1899 Advertisement From Canada;
Photograph
Created & Edited by K. R. Overholt
Critchfield © 2017
|
|
After a long life of business,
management, entrepreneurship, and
political activity, Henry Clay Frick died
in his New York City residence in December
1919, just seven days before his
70th birthday. He was buried in
Pittsburgh, at Homewood Cemetery, located
near the home he named Clayton. Other
members of his family are buried there,
including his wife Adelaide
Howard Childs Frick (1859-1931),
their sons Childs
(1883-1965) and Henry, Jr.(1892-1892),
and their daughters Martha
(1885-1891) and Helen (1888-1984).
Many books have been written about this
family. |
About 38 years after Frick's Broad
Ford Overholt distillery rolled out the
first bottle of OLD OVERHOLT, the folks
at A. Overholt and Company
discovered the earliest record of a
federal trademark for OLD OVERHOLT (Certificate
#56,876) had been allowed to
elapse. In the autumn of 1929,
a New York City lawyer had to submit an
application to the United States Patent
Office for re-registration. The new
application (Serial #291,785)
was summarily rejected. On November 14,
1929, a letter from the
Trade-mark Division of the Department of
Commerce declared, "Registration is
refused under the Act of Feb. 20, 1905 on
the ground that the mark is dominantly a
surname, unless applicant is in a
position to bring this case under the
ten-year proviso clause of Sec. 5 (b) of
the Act of Feb. 20, 1905.
If he is, form "D" of the trade
mark Rules should be made a part of the
statment by amendment, and the statement
as thus amended should be supported by a
supplemental oath or a new
declaration." Additionally, "A
search of the office records (Class 49)
shows that no trade mark like applicant's
has been registered for use on the same
kind of goods."
After checking the
trademark records, the office was
assuring the lawyer that the name
"Old Overholt" was still
available. The lawyer submitted another
document, dated November 15, 1929,
that explained, "I beg to state that
the application herein is a
re-registration of trademark N. 56,876,
which was allowed to elapse without being
renewed." This letter did not
include the requested material, so
another rejection was released, stating,
"As presented, the application is
refused." The lawyer was directed to
insert "Form D of the Trade-Mark
Rules" in the statement, and enter
an amendment that supported the
application "by a supplemental oath
or a new decaration." In a letter
dated December 9, 1929,
a new declaration was submitted, leading
to the expected result. The application
filed on October 30, 1929,
finally secured the registration of the
OLD OVERHOLT trademark on March
25, 1930. The registration for
the likeness of Abraham Overholt was
secured on March 11, 1930.
|
|

1930 U.S. Patent Office ~ Statement
of Registration
Trade-Mark 269,180 ~ OLD OVERHOLT
Photograph Created & Edited by K. R.
Overholt Critchfield © 2017
|
|
At the turn of the 20th century,
Abraham Overholt's combined flouring mill
and distillery building at West Overton,
renamed West Overton Distilling
Company, was still producing the
signature Overholt rye whiskey, as a
product named OLD FARM PENNSYLVANIA PURE
RYE WHISKEY, and it was considered a
great success. Distilled and aged at West
Overton, the whiskey was similar to, but
not equal to, the product coming out of
Broad Ford's more modern distilling
complex. Even so, West Overton was
producing a product that remained
popular, and at some point, the name OLD
FARM was painted on the broad side of
Abraham's West Overton distillery
building. Except for those years during
America's Prohibition, Abraham's
distilling enterprise had been going
non-stop since the year 1810. |
~ Pictorial References ~
|

(1) Ambrotype
of Abraham Overholt at George
Washington's Tomb;
Copyright © 2017 West Overton Village
(reduced in size for this venue);
West Overton Village Digital Archive;
Accessed January 7, 2018
|
|
|

(2) Photograph of Abraham Overholt (1865);
A. N. Stauffer,
Photographer; Copyright © 2017 West
Overton Village;
West Overton Village Digital Archive;
Accessed January 7, 2018
|
|
 (3) 1854 & 1856 ~ View
of George Washington's Tomb in Mount
Vernon, Virginia; The Langenheim
Brothers, Photographers
|

(4) Circa 1859 ~
Repairs to Mausoleum; William
England,
Photographer for London Stereoscopic
Company;
Getty Images; See article at the
following site:
www.historytoday.com/roger-hudson/where-george-washington-lies
|
|

(5) Tomb of George
Washington, Mount Vernon (1859?)
Wikimedia.org,
gives the original source of this
item as the Robert N. Dennis
collection of stereoscopic views;
Coverage: 1859?-1925. The current
location is Stephen A. Schwarzman
Building, Photography Collection;
Miriam and Ira D. Wallach
Division of Art, Prints and
Photographs. |
|
 |
 (6) 1883 ~ George
Washington's Grave
C. Edwards Lester, History of the
United States, Vol. I;
New York, NY; P. F. Collier (1883)
|
 (7) The Tomb of Washington
Currier & Ives (1834-1907)
This
hand-colored lithograph by Currier
& Ives has no specific
date, but notice the boarded
walkway. Considering that the
bricks of the tomb look brand
new, and the structure was built
in 1831, maybe 1834 is the
original date for this picture. |
|
|
(1)
https://wovdighistory.psc.edu/items/show/55
(2)
https://wovdighistory.psc.edu/items/show/42
(3)
http://chubachus.blogspot.com/2014/11/view-of-george-washingtons-omb-in-mount.html
(4)
www.historytoday.com/roger-hudson/where-george-washington-lies
(5) https://commons.wikimedia.org/.
Search for the following file at
Wikimedia:
Tomb_of_George_Washington,_Mount_Vernon,_from_Robert_N._Dennis_collection_of_stereoscopic_views_2.png
(6)
http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/63600/63633/63633_gw-grave.htm
(7)
https://springfieldmuseums.org/collections/item/the-tomb-of-washington-mount-vernon-va-currier-ives/ |
|
~ References ~
|
1 |
Circa 1867 West
Overton (Detail) ~ 1867
Westmoreland County Historic
Atlas; John Pritiskutch
Productions; photograph created
and edited by K. R. Overholt
Critchfield © 2016. The full
drawing can be purchased in
various sizes, from John
Pritiscutch Reproductions (www.anthracitemaps.com). |
2 |
Abraham
Overholt ~ Henry Stauffer
Overholt ~ Jacob Stauffer
Overholt; photograph created
by K. R. Overholt Critchfield ©
2006. This is my original
creation, a work of art using
drawings found in history books,
created for my web pages and
published articles, appearing in
various sizes and tints. I have
found this picture, and other
pictures that are my creations,
posted elsewhere on the Internet
without acknowledgement, a
copyright symbol, and/or without
a statement that they were found
at my web site, now www.karensbranches.com.
If you have posted one of
my pictures, please take time to
add the proper identification to
my work. Thank you! |
3 |
The Genealogical
Records of the Descendants of
Martin Oberholtzer, which
includes Descendants of Martin
Overholt, Son of Martin
Oberholtzer (pp. 132-198),
and The Genealogical Records
of the Descendants of William
Nash; A. J. Fretz; reprinted
in one book by
Westmoreland-Fayette Historical
Society, West Overton, Scottdale,
PA (1985); original publisher of
Oberholtzer genealogical records,
Press of The Evergreen News,
Milton, NJ (1903); original
publisher of Nash genealogical
records, Press of Pequannock
Valley Argus, Butler, NJ
(1903) |
4 |
Along the Banks of
Jacobs Creek: A Genealogy of a
Mennonite Community; Winifred
Erb Paul; Mennonite Publishing
House, Scottdale, PA (1990); see Overholt,
Martin (p. 71) and Overholt,
Henry (p. 76) |
5 |
Library of Congress Historic
American Buildings
Survey/Historic American
Engineering Record - West
Overton, Westmoreland County,
Pennsylvania, Survey Number:
HABS PA-5654; Historic American
Buildings Survey, National Park
Service, Department of the
Interior, Washington, DC
- West Overton
43-page report Call Number: HABS,
PA, 65-OVTW,11-
- Henry S. Overholt House
15-page report Call Number:
HABS, PA,65-OVTW,10-
- Christian S. Overholt
Store & House 13-page
report Call Number: HABS, PA,
65-OVTW,9- |
6 |
Circa 1867 West
Overton Community ~ 1867
Westmoreland County Historic
Atlas; #8 Henry S. Overholt House
~ #9 Christian S. Overholt Store
& House; John Pritiskutch
Productions; photograph created
and edited by K. R. Overholt
Critchfield © 2016. The full
drawing can be purchased in
various sizes, from John
Pritiscutch Reproductions (www.anthracitemaps.com). |
7 |
Henry S. Overholt
House; tinted photograph
created and edited by K. R.
Overholt Critchfield © 2016.
Call Number HABS, PA, 65-OVTW,
10-; Survey Number HABS PA-5655; Historic
American Buildings Survey
(HABS), Library of Congress,
Washington, DC; 1990 |
8 |
Christian S. Overholt
Store and House, tinted
photograph created and edited by
K. R. Overholt Critchfield ©
2016. Call Number HABS, PA,
65-OVTW, 9-; Survey Number HABS
PA-5656; Historic American
Buildings Survey (HABS),
Library of Congress, Washington,
DC; 1990 |
9 |
More Railroad
Projects, Pittsburgh Daily Post,
Pittsburgh, PA; January 15, 1853;
photograph created and edited by
K. R. Overholt Critchfield ©
2016 |
10 |
Annual Meeting of the
Stockholders of the Pittsburgh
& Connellsville R. R. Co.,
Pittsburgh Daily Post,
Pittsburgh, PA; December 7, 1854;
photograph created and edited by
K. R. Overholt Critchfield ©
2016 |
11 |
GRAIN DRILL, Daily
Morning Post, Pittsburgh, PA;
Tuesday, August 9, 1859; photo
created and edited by K. R.
Overholt Critchfield © 2016 |
12 |
GRAIN DRILL,
Presbyterian Banner and Advocate,
Pittsburgh, PA; Saturday, August
13, 1859; page 3; photo created
and edited by K. R. Overholt
Critchfield © 2016 |
13 |
Original photographs
from Historic American
Buildings Survey, West Overton,
1990; tinted photos created
and edited by K. R. Overholt
Critchfield © 2016 |
14 |
Circa 1867 Hog Pens
Next to West Overton Distillery
Building; Westmoreland County
Historic Atlas (1867); John
Pritiskutch Productions;
photograph created & edited
by K. R. Overholt Critchfield ©
2016 |
15 |
Circa 1867 West
Overton Farming & Coking,
1867 Westmoreland County Historic
Atlas; John Pritiskutch
Productions; photograph created
& edited by K. R. Overholt
Critchfield © 2016 |
16
|
Circa 1858 ~ Daguerreotype
of Abraham Overholt at George
Washington's Tomb; Original
from West Overton Village
Digital Archive; Copyright ©
2017 West Overton Village;
Photograph Tinted & Modified
by K. R. Overholt Critchfield ©
2018
Update reveals this is
an ambrotype
photograph, dated July 3, 1860. |
17 |
Arrivals at the
Principal Hotels; Philadelphia
Press, Friday, July 06,
1860; Page: 3; photograph created
and edited by K. R. Overholt
Critchfield © 2016 |
18
|
Update:
1860 Ambrotype
of Abraham Overholt at George
Washington's Tomb; Original
Photograph by Stephen Ford ©
2018, Modified by K. R. Overholt
Critchfield © 2018 |
19 |
Update: Abraham
Overholt At George Washington's
Tomb #2; Originals from the
Collection of Stephen Ford ©
2018; Four Small Views
by K. R. Overholt Critchfield ©
2018 |
20
|
Update: "Tomb
of Washington; Mt Vernon 3 July
1860; Abraham Overholt; D. P.
Patterson; ...-thers";
Original Photograph by Stephen
Ford © 2018; Modified by K. R.
Overholt Critchfield © 2018 |
21 |
Circa 1867 West
Overton Coal & Coke Industry
~ 1867 Westmoreland County
Historic Atlas; John
Pritiskutch Productions;
photograph created and edited by
K. R. Overholt Critchfield ©
2016 |
22 |
1865 ~ Photograph of
Abraham Overholt; A. N.
Stauffer, Photographer;
Original from West Overton
Village Digital Archive;
Copyright © 2017 West Overton
Village; accessed January 7,
2018; photo modified by K. R.
Overholt Critchfield © 2018
(https://wovdighistory.psc.edu/items/show/42) |
23 |
From Herald of Truth Obituaries,
Herald Of Truth, Volume
VII, Number 3; March, 1870; page
46-47 |
24 |
Circa 1867 The Spring
House & Abraham's Homestead
House ~ 1867 Westmoreland County
Historic Atlas; John
Pritiskutch Productions;
photograph created and edited by
K. R. Overholt Critchfield ©
2016 |
25
|
Whiskies; The
Evening Telegraph, September
15, 1870; Fifth Edition,
Philadelphia, PA; Page 5;
photograph created and edited by
K. R. Overholt Critchfield ©
2016 |
26 |
Overholt, Maria
Stauffer, Obituary In Memoriam.
Box 1, Folder C19. West Overton
Village and Museums, Scottdale,
Pennsylvania. |
27 |
Recorder of Deeds,
Westmoreland County, PA; Deed
Book 197, p. 49,
dated May 31, 1890, states Sarah
Ann Overholt died July
24, 1921, and Clyde
Overholt died on October
28, 1921. |
28 |
A. Overholt and
Company & H. C. Frick Coke
Company: Registered Distillery
No. 3 - 23rd District, Fayette
Co., Pa., Sanborn's Surveys of
Whiskey Warehouses. PA, MD, WV,
MD, NY, NJ (1894);
Sanborn-Perris Map Company;
photograph created and edited by
K. R. Overholt Critchfield ©
2016 |
29
|
1894 A. Overholt and
Company Distillery Building;
Sanborn's Surveys of Whiskey
Warehouses. PA, MD, WV, MD, NY,
NJ (1894); Sanborn-Perris Map
Company; photograph created and
edited by K. R. Overholt
Critchfield © 2016 |
30
|
OLD OVERHOLT WHISKEY
Bottled in Bond; 1899
Advertisement From Canada;
photograph created and edited by
K. R. Overholt Critchfield ©
2017 |
31
|
1930 U.S. Patent
Office ~ Statement of
Registration, Trade-Mark
269,180 ~ OLD OVERHOLT;
photograph created and edited by
K. R. Overholt Critchfield ©
2017 |
~ ~
32 |
Original View
~ Ambrotype
of Abraham Overholt at George
Washington's Tomb; Copyright
© 2017 West Overton Village
(reduced in size for this venue);
West Overton Village Digital
Archive; accessed January 7,
2018
(https://wovdighistory.psc.edu/items/show/55) |
33 |
Original View
~ Photograph of Abraham
Overholt (1865); A. N.
Stauffer, Photographer; Copyright
© 2017 West Overton Village; West
Overton Village Digital Archive;
Accessed January 7, 2018
(https://wovdighistory.psc.edu/items/show/42 ) |
|
|
|