Butte County
Biographies
HARRIS LEROY OVERTON
HARRIS LEROY OVERTON.—There is perhaps no section of California where
general ranching and stock-raising have met with a greater measure of success
when accompanied by industry and intelligence than in Butte County. Harris
Leroy Overton, a native son, has been engaged in ranching from boyhood, and has
been very successful. He was born on Rock Creek, September 4, 1864.
His father, Agrippa, was a native of North Carolina, whence he came to Iowa in
1850; and from there he crossed the plains by ox teams to California in the
early fifties. For a time he mined on Rabbit Creek, and then
returned to Iowa, where he was united in marriage with Miss Albina
Ware. In 1856, Mr. and Mrs. Overton crossed the plains, coming to
Petaluma, and from there came to Rock Creek, near Chico, where Mr. Overton took
up a government claim, buying also adjoining land until he had about seven
hundred acres. After a time he sold his ranch and returned to Iowa, but did not
remain there long; the memory of the equable climate of California, with its
many days of sunshine, proved too much for him, and he again came to this state
and repurchased his former ranch of seven hundred acres, where he afterwards
died. Mrs. Overton died a week after he came to Chico. Four children were the
result of this marriage, of whom three grew up and are
still living.
The second eldest in his parents’ family,
Harris Leroy Overton remained at home and was brought up on the ranch, where he
became familiar with the various details of ranch work, raising grain, caring
for stock, etc., and meantime attended the Walnut public school. In 1888 he
married Miss Maggie Campbell, who was born in Butte County. Her father, Joseph
Campbell, was a pioneer miner, and is now living near Magalia. Her mother, Mary
(Kanote) Campbell, died in January, 1917. For a
number of years after his marriage, Mr. Overton worked on different ranches,
first for Pleasant Guynn, then for Bob Anderson, and
subsequently for Bill Helphinstine and others.
Meantime he purchased a small ranch on the state highway, which he sold in
1911, and bought his present ranch of two hundred forty acres, twelve miles
north of Chico, on the Meridian line, where he raises grain and stock.
Mr. Overton is a member of Great Oak Camp,
No. 136, W. O. W. He is independent in politics, looking more to
the principles involved, and the character of the candidates, than to strict
party lines.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
19 August 2009.
Source:
"History of Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Page 1242, Historic Record Co, Los
Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2009 Marie Hassard.
Golden Nugget Library's
Butte County Biographies