"COLONEL RICHARD H. OVERALL, a pioneer settler of Coleman county and a prominent and wealthy stockman, died at his home in Coleman in 1900. He was born at St. Charles, near St. Louis, Missouri, in 1832, and was reared and educated there. His father was one of the earliest pioneer settlers in Missouri, moving there from Tennessee, and he was a soldier in the Black Hawk war. The son Richard, after reaching mature years, was engaged in the lumber business at St. Charles until the breaking out of the war between the states, and during that conflict he was employed as a train conductor on the old North Missouri Railroad, now the Wabash road, running from St. Louis into central north Missouri. On account of the fierce contention and disorder throughout that portion of Missouri and the warfare that waged there, largely of a guerilla and bushwhacking nature, Mr. Overall was often a witness of and a participant in the scenes of violence enacted. One occasion in particular was in 1863, when his train was attacked at Centralia by forces headed by Frank James and Bill Anderson. The train was stopped, the passengers robbed and roughly used, and twenty-seven Federal soldiers on their way home on a furlough of sick leave were taken from the train and shot. The depot and practically the entire of Centralia were burned to the ground, and even the train was set on fire, but by a ruse worked out by Mr. Overall in connection with the engineer he ran the train out of town for quite a distance and the remaining passengers, particularly the women and children, were taken out and given protection to a place of safety.

"After the close of the war Mr. and Mrs. Overall went to live at Macon, Missouri, and there he was engaged in the milling business for about nine years. Early in 1876, his mill having burned, he and Mrs. Overall came to Texas to start life anew in a new country, and coming to Coleman county in the spring of the same year they located south of the present town of Coleman at what has ever since remained the Overall ranch and yet the property of Mrs. Overall. Colonel Overall as a beginning went into the southwestern Texas country, to Laredo, on the borderland, and brought back a small bunch of cattle, it taking him three months to make the trip, and this provided the nucleus of his cattle business which , growing from year to year through careful and intelligent management, finally reached what it is at present, one of the most valuable stock ranches in western Texas. The Overall ranch consists of nearly thirty thousand acres, beginning about three and a half miles south of Coleman and extending southward for many miles. Colonel Overall handled horses, cattle and sheep extensively.

"He also took a great interest and a prominent part in the growth and development of Coleman and of Coleman county, and at the time of his death he had been living in the town for some months, establishing his residence therein in 1900, the year of his death. He was a public spirited citizen and a valuable man in every phase of life, and his death was greatly mourned. In worldly affairs he had been a successful man, accumulating a comfortable fortune, but at the same time he was generous and liberal in all his dealings, and a man of the strictest honor and integrity.

"Mrs. Overall was before her marriage Miss Martha Tye Robinson, a native of Callaway county, Missouri, and of Virginia ancestry. Her grandfather, also of that state, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. Mrs. Overall was reared at St. Charles, Missouri, and was there married to Mr. Overall. She was educated at Science Hall College in Shelbyville, Kentucky. From the time of her marriage to Colonel Overall she was his constant companion and helpmeet. Leaving the comforts and conveniences of her home life in Missouri cities and coming to the Texas frontier in 1876, a region at that time very thinly settled and practically open range, far from sources of supply, she cheerfully took up her share of the burden of establishing a ranch and getting a start in the new country, and with a fine spirit of adaptability she not only performed her necessary household duties but readily learned the ways of the frontier, such as shooting, riding, etc., and also learned the cattle and live stock business thoroughly. She joined her husband at Waco after his tedious trip to Laredo above mentioned in search of stock for the ranch. In those days all their supplies had to be shipped from Fort Worth or Waco overland. Since her husband's death she has managed her ranch with ability, good judgment and the experience learned from long years in the live stock business. Although residing in town she is the active manager of her ranch, which is connected with her residence by telephone, and she has a competent foreman and trained assistants. Mrs. Overall also takes an active interest in the general affairs of the city, and as her husband she enjoys a wide popularity."  (History of Central and Western Texas, B. B. Paddock, editor, Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, 1911, pp. 338-339.)

Original Image owned by Ralph Terry                       

Original Image owned by Ralph Terry