San Diego County Biographies
 
GIDEON JACKSON OVERSHINER

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 
came to California in 1850, from Galena, Illinois, arriving August 3, 1850. He 
was born at Fort London, Franklin County, Pennsylvania, February 4, 1825, son of 
Philip Overshiner, who was born in Virginia, moved to Franklin and passed the 
greater portion of his life there. Gideon Jackson was the ninth child in a 
family of eleven. The family emigrated to Hopkinsville, Kentucky, in 1846.
        Mr. Overshiner was married in Galena, Illinois, September 13, 1848, to 
Miss Minerva Dunphey. In 1850 he came to California; he went to St. Louis first 
to purchase supplies, then joined the train a St. Joseph, Missouri. There were 
sixty-four members in the train and sixteen wagons. The hardships of the journey 
were such that the horses gave out and wagons were left from time to time along 
the trail, so that not one was left in which to cross the mountains. The 
overflowing of the Humboldt river had made the trail of '49 impassable, and new 
roads had to be broken over wild, rough country. They crossed the mountains by 
the Carson route, often making their own trail and suffering much. Mrs. 
Overshiner left Galena in 1851, taking the steamer from New York to the Isthmus, 
which she crossed on mules, and taking the steamer McKim, on the Pacific side, 
for San Francisco. The ship proved to be unseaworthy and put into San Diego at 
the town now called Roseville, where the passengers, 375 in number, were 
discharged; those having no money struck inland. Mrs. Overshiner, after two 
weeks' delay, took the Seabird for San Francisco, where she met her husband, who 
took her to Sacramento, where he was carrying on the carriage business. At the 
end of six years they moved to the western part of Yolo County, to Cottonwood, 
where he bought land and began to raise grain and stock.
        In 1861 he was elected County Assessor, and moved to Washington, the 
county seat, on the Sacramento river; that same year the county seat was moved 
to Woodland, of which town Mr. Overshiner, in conjunction with the other county 
officials, were the first settlers, and gave the town the name. In 1863 his term 
expired, and he took up his carriage business at Woodland, which he followed 
until January, 1870, when he moved to San Diego. He continued his carriage trade 
there, but the town being quiet and business slow, he sold his position after 
four years and moved to San Jose, continuing the same business, but not 
permanently locating, as he had been so pleased with the climate of San Diego 
that he intended eventually to return, which he did in 1885, and resumed the old 
vocation.
        In politics he has been an active Republican; he was one of the 
vice-presidents of the last Whig meeting held in this State. He voted for the 
constitution and admission of the Territory as a State, September 9, 1850. 
During his experience as a pioneer he has considerably advanced the Republican 
form of government.
Mr. Overshiner has had ten children, eight of whom, five boys and three girls, 
are living.
 
SOURCE:  An Illustrated History of Southern California:  Embracing the Counties 
of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the Peninsula of Lower 
California� Chicago:  The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890.  p.-  345