Biographical Sketches.
CHAPTER XII.
JOHN G. OVERSHINER.
Mr. Overshiner is a native of Galena, Illinois, born July 26, 1850. When little more than a year old he was brought by his mother to Sacramento, where his father rejoined his family, having come to the coast some time previously. In 1857 the family removed to Yolo County, where young Overshiner lived in several localities for a short time, notably at Cottonwood, Washington, and Woodland, attending the public schools till he was fifteen years old, and Hesperian College for four years later. After finishing his studies, he was actively employed as clerk in the San Diego post-office, teaching in the public school at National City under a first-grade certificate, and was also a member of the San Diego County Board of School Examiners. From 1872 to 1878 he found employment in San Benito County and in San Jose, Fresno and San Francisco as clerk or book-keeper, when he applied himself to the printer's trade in San Jose. He afterwards worked on the Democrat at Woodland, and was a partner in the establishment of the first daily paper issued at Santa Cruz. This venture proving unsuccessful, he worked for a time as compositor on the San Diego and Los Angeles papers, when, in July, 1882, in conjunction with E.E. Vincent, he founded the Calico Print, at Calico, San Bernardino County, and continued the publication of the paper till the fall of 1887. He now struck San Diego again, this time with a job office and an advertising sheet, but as it was now in the closing days of its seductive "boom," his prospects vanished almost immediately after his arrival there. He came again to the Sacramento Valley and began the publication of the Maxwell Mercury, July 14, 1888, where he is now conducting this journal, advocating with zeal and effectiveness the importance of irrigation and other local interests.
COLUSA COUNTY
ITS
HISTORY TRACED FROM A STATE OF NATURE
THROUGH THE EARLY PERIOD OF SET-
TLEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT,
TO THE PRESENT DAY
WITH A
DESCRIPTION OF ITS RESOURCES, STATISTICAL
TABLES, ETC.
ALSO
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF PIONEERS AND
PROMINENT RESIDENTS
by Justus H. Rogers
Orland, California
1891
Page 343-465
Transcribed by: Linda Diane Jackson 7/12/2009
Colusa County Biographies ~ Archive Biography Index ~ Archive Index
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