Overton, Nebraska, has never been a large town. The 2020 US Census reflects a population of 561 people, a 58% increase over the 326 people recorded in Overton when the 1880 census was taken. Located in Covington Township, Overton has maintained a steady, if slow, population growth. I imagine Overton to be a place boasting a friendly, small-town character held in the face of a rapidly changing world. 

But there is one glaring change between the 1880 and 2020 census reports. Unlike the total population of Overton, the racial demographics changed drastically. In 1880, 14% of Overton’s population identified as Black or Mulatto. By 2020, Overton is entirely devoid of people of African descent. 

When black families began to return to the United States from Canada, many settled in the neighboring states of Michigan and Ohio. However, a small band of families from Buxton (Elgin Settlement), Ontario, set their sights on Nebraska. This group eventually formed DeWitty, NE, but first settled in Overton. The former Canadian black sojourners who appear in Overton’s 1880 census include families like Joshua Emanuel, William Walker, Isaac Riley, William Rann, William Small, and the Gields/Robinson family. The Robert Allen family from Kentucky rounded out Overton’s 45 black residents. 

Unlike DeWitty, Nebraska, or Nicodemus, Kansas, the black settlers in Dawson County did not establish a separate community. They lived for almost thirty years as a community within a community. A 1969 Nebraskaland Magazine article by Jean Williams discussed attempts by black homesteaders to establish themselves in Nebraska. Many failed, but ‘by the turn of the century, one colony of Negroes was succeeding. These people filed claims on land near Overton in Dawson County in 1880. The homesteaders forming the nucleus of this settlement came from Canada. They were educated, weather-oriented, and skilled artisans, bringing goods, supplies, and money to sustain them until they could harvest a crop.’ 

In just a handful of years after the first black Canadian homesteader left Overton for Cherry County beginning in 1902, most of the black families from Canada followed. By 1915, the United States Postal Service established a post office in DeWitty, which went on to be referred to as ‘Nebraska’s largest and most permanent colony of African American homesteaders.’ 

In DeWitty’s shadow, the memory of the unnamed Overton colony of black settlers faded. But for the original Canadian group, Overton was home and the birthplace of the first generation of Canadian sojourners who returned to the United States. 

Rose Meehan Speese wrote to her brother, Bill, in August 1946 after traveling back to Overton from Pierre, South Dakota. She spoke joyfully about seeing her childhood friends and concluded the letter by saying, ‘It sure felt good to step onto old home soil.’ 

If you’re interested in exploring more about the community or perhaps searching for a house for sale in Overton, NE, there are opportunities to discover the charm of this small town. 

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SOURCES 

1880 and 1920 United States Federal Census, Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Online publication. 

Nebraska’s Negro Homesteaders Located at DeWitty, Nebraskaland Magazine, Jean Williams, 1969. Published with permission at Cherry County NEGenWeb Project 2000-2011. 

Letter, Rose Meehan Speese to brother William Meehan, August 28, 1946, postmarked Pierre, South Dakota.

While going through old books, a small envelope fell out of one. When I opened the envelope, I knew it was something special.  

This small card was from my father’s earliest school days in Overton, Dawson County, NE, between 1902 and 1906. In 1907, the Meehan family left Overton for the Sand Hills. I imagine Dad saved this card because of the bond he shared with his earliest teacher.  

Miss Dora Wallace was born in Nebraska in 1883. In 1900, she was a seventeen-year-old student living with her parents in Overton and may have started teaching in the early 1900s. The 1910 U.S. Census lists Dora as a schoolteacher in Overton. Bill Meehan and other first-generation Black homestead children were likely among her earliest students.  

According to vital records, Miss Wallace never married. She continued to teach school in Overton until her death on November 21, 1938, at 55. She is buried at the Overton Cemetery with her parents.  

Miss Dora Wallace gave her students Christmas cards and a love for learning.  

I wonder if Dad thought of Miss Wallace when he wrote his 1914 poem, The Old Home Place Is The Best Place. He laments leaving Overton for Nebraska’s Sandhills and wishes for a life ‘where the schools go onward like clockwork, nine months of the year without fail.’ If you’re looking for a house for sale in Overton, NE, perhaps it could evoke similar memories of cherished teachers and learning.

In the hills of north western Nebraska,

Far out on the desolate plain,

I sit while my mind wanders backward,

To the years that shall not come again. 

Seven years have I been in this region,

Where the crops never grow in excess,

Seven years have I toiled on a Kinkaid, 

In the cattle land of the west. 

It’s no use to farm in these sand hills,

Where the wind blows a gale all the year,

And the droughts wither up all the grain fields,

But we stick just because we are here. 

I think of the time we arrived here,

Great promise we saw in our land,

Our fortunes we thought we’d soon make here,

In this desolate region of sand. 

Better far had we stayed where we came from, 

In central Nebraska so grand

Where no cattle men rule all the region,

And the land is not loose sifting sand. 

Where the schools go onward like clockwork,

Nine months of the year without fail,

Where the crops are never a failure,

Unless they are struck by the hail. 

We were close to the market and railroad, 

Old Overton was the home town,

And if you wish to see farming, 

Just visit the country close round. 

No need had we for the office, 

For the postman was out rain or sun

And we got our mail every evening, 

On the R.F.D. No. 1. 

There’s a moral in what I’ve been telling, 

But for fear you’ll not study it out, 

Before I go any farther, 

I’ll tell you just what it’s about. 

Don’t seek to better conditions, 

In a land you know nothing about, 

For the old home place is the best place, 

You’ll agree when you study i t out. 

Several African-descended homesteaders in Overton were members of the Samaritan Presbyterian Church, which appears to have been a mixed-race congregation whose common goal was survival, community building, and God’s kingdom. The Canadian homesteaders were predominantly Methodist and Baptist, but they were not unfamiliar with the Presbyterian church. A Presbyterian minister founded the Elgin community. 

In 1946, Rose Meehan Speese, my aunt, made a sentimental visit to her Overton birthplace. She wrote of seeing childhood friends and Samaritan church members Sadie Schull, John Carey, and Ellis Dustin. 

Overton was home to many black Canadian homesteaders for at least twenty years. Friendships formed by some as children in Canada gave way to marriages and filial bonds that held the families within a tight community throughout their lifetime. One such friendship was that of Charles Meehan and William Crawford. 

The core of black homesteaders from Overton may have migrated to get more land in the Sandhills. A mitigating factor for a few of the families may have been the perceived racially motivated harassment of a community member. On February 24, 1905, the Overton Harold printed Mr. William Crawford’s response to “untrue” statements made about him by a member of the [white] community. Mr. Crawford categorized the comments as “a base slander on himself and [his] race.” The Crawford and Meehan families departed for Cherry County shortly after the incident.