California Biographies
Mendocino and Lake Counties, California
 
Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

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

Source:
History of Mendocino and Lake Counties, California
With Biographical Sketches
History by Aurelius O. Carpenter And Percy H. Millberry
Illustrated, Complete In One Volume
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1914


PROF. JOHN OVERHOLSER. � The founder of the Lakeport 
Academy, now identified with the Lakeport high school as science professor, 
has been associated with the cause of higher education in Lake county for so 
many years that the history of the one is practically a record of the other. 
Four weeks after his arrival at Lakeport in 1884 his association with educa- 
tional work was inaugurated and the academy was started in the old public 
school building, but in 1890 a permanent structure was erected. To the 
academy belonged the honor of being the first establishment of higher learn- 
ing in the county, with the exception of the Clear Lake College, founded by 
John Kelley in the latter part of the '70s, but now defunct. During 1900 the 
academy was leased to the Clear Lake Union high school district, and it is 
now serving the uses of the only high school in the county, with the Professor 
as instructor in the sciences, a department in which he especially excels. 

Of Pennsylvania-Dutch parentage, a son of Daniel and Mary (Hartman) 
Overholser, and a native of York county, Pa., Prof. John Overholser was born 
February 14, 1851, and at the age of three years was taken to Ohio, the family 
settling on a farm near Dayton, where he attended common schools and was 
trained in the details of farming. He was third in order of birth among six 
children and had few advantages except such as his own tireless energy made 
possible. His own force of will and self-support enabled him to graduate 
from the high school of Xenia, Ohio, and to pursue the scientific and classical 
courses in Adrian (Mich.) College, from which institution in 1880 he was 
graduated with honors. Teaching has been his life work. In it he engaged 
as a source of livelihood and means of defraying his expenses in college. 
Upon receiving the degree of A. B., he returned to pedagogy with the eager- 
ness of one to whom the profession was a task of affection. From the country 
schools he was promoted to be principal at Beaver Creek and later held a 
similar position at Spring valley. After seven years of teaching in the east, 
mainly in Greene county, Ohio, he came to California in 1884 and has since 
been identified with the cause of higher education at Lakeport. 

Under the personal supervision of Professor Overholser there was erected 
in 1890 a frame building, 40x30 feet in dimensions, with two stories, besides 
a basement with storerooms, bathrooms for boys and similar equipment for 
girls, together with lockers and other desirable features. The first floor con- 
tains a large assembly hall, a well equipped school library and three recitation 
rooms. The second story contains an unusually complete physical laboratory, 
a chemical laboratory that would do justice to a university and two com- 
modious recitation rooms. The building stands at a suitable distance from 
town, on a high and sightly location that not only affords ideal drainage, but 
also gives a picturesque view of the mountains and the lake, there being 
perhaps no high school more advantageously situated from a standpoint of 
attractive environment and beautiful scenery. The grounds comprise two 
acres, in the rear of which a modest cottage affords to the Professor a very 
comfortable home. Not only is he prominent in educational circles, but 
through his interest in the establishment of the Lakeport library he became 
a leader in literary circles. He is an attendant at the services of the Baptist 
Church and a contributor to religious movements. Fraternally he has been 
through the chairs of the Lakeport Lodge of" Odd Fellows. While taking a 
warm interest in public affairs and keeping well posted concerning national 
issues, he has never sought office nor cared for political prestige, his tastes 
leading him rather to the tasks of an instructor, the study of the sciences and 
other scholarly pursuits.