History Next Door: Councilman Jeff Eslick’s Drive to Restore the ‘Hidden’ Overton Family Cemetery

Michael Patrick Leahy: You have a story for us.

Oh, my goodness.

Set the background – it has to do with a cemetery of historic significance in the 11th district.

Jeff Eslick: I’m sure I’m going to run into things like this, but this really has amazed me from the very beginning.

I got a regular email from a constituent who has a limb from a tree in a cemetery hanging over his home.

It’s caused a couple of claims when big winds come through and limbs fall. So I called a friend – a business guy in the area – and asked him to go look at it, seeing if he might be able to help me with it.

I didn’t know – [the email] didn’t stipulate who owns the land; who owns the cemetery.

Michael Patrick Leahy: Okay. So the cemetery, because sometimes cemeteries are owned by the family.

This is a cemetery owned by a family or the descendants of the family?

Jeff Eslick: Generally, at least. I may be wrong here, but in this case, we were looking for descendants of the family to be able to help with this.

Michael Patrick Leahy: Okay, so this sounds like, okay, there’s a cemetery that has a tree with a limb that goes on to pass the cemetery.

Jeff Eslick: Normal stuff.

Michael Patrick Leahy: Normal stuff. Okay, great.

Jeff Eslick: Turns out it’s Thomas Overton, who was an American war veteran. He was Andrew Jackson’s Second in a duel with Dickinson.

Michael Patrick Leahy: You’re kidding me.

Jeff Eslick: I’m not real sure how all that works out. I’ve tried to figure out what the Second does – is it, you know, if “A” chickens out, “B” has to shoot or whatever – but either way, he’s part of Andrew Jackson’s crew.

And in Old Hickory, it doesn’t get much more “Old Hickory” than Andrew Jackson. And if this guy was his Second in a duel, this guy’s got to be important to Andrew. If he’s important to Andrew, he’s important to us.

Michael Patrick Leahy: So this is a family cemetery. There’s more than one grave out there.

Jeff Eslick:  Yeah – well, I found out now that actually, I believe Metro Parks owns it.

I haven’t verified that. I just found that out a couple of hours ago, but the business owner offered to pay for half of the money to have the tree trimmed. He has nothing to do with this. He’s just a great guy in the neighborhood.

Michael Patrick Leahy: Was it on his business?

Jeff Eslick: Not even close.

Michael Patrick Leahy: Was it on or going over his land?

Jeff Eslick: No – it’s about five miles from his house.

He’s just a good guy.

Michael Patrick Leahy: So there’s a separate guy who decides to pay for it?

Jeff Eslick: The homeowner also said he would chip in. I have two other businesses, Charlie McLean and McLean Industries. I’ve even reached out to bigger corporations in the area.

They’ve said, ‘I’m out of town, I’m in, we’ll figure out the details later.’

Michael Patrick Leahy: How much does it cost to trim the tree?

Jeff Eslick: It was $1,600 to trim, but–

Michael Patrick Leahy: Has it been trimmed yet?

Jeff Eslick: Yeah, they trimmed it yesterday all day and they’re finishing up or finished up already this morning. It was a lot more difficult job because of – I mean, it’s in a cemetery.

You can’t really pull a truck up as close and it’s on a hill going up. So everything was more difficult, but it’s right there on Donaldson. It’s 1207 Donaldson Avenue in the Old Hickory Village.

But again, it’s a historical American revolutionary cemetery. It is in huge disrepair.

Michael Patrick Leahy: Okay. So that’s where we get to the rest of the story.

Jeff Eslick: That’s where we get to the good part.

Michael Patrick Leahy: Okay. So Thomas Overton, 1753 – 1824, an American political and military leader best known for having been the Second to Andrew Jackson in his duel with Charles Dickinson in 1806.

His younger brother, John Overton, was the guy who, I guess, founded Travelers Rest and was one of Jackson’s closest friends.

Jeff Eslick: And I get the opportunity to save this. Yeah. It’s like a Christmas present that came on the 27th.

Michael Patrick Leahy: So now you’ve just found out that this – how many grave sites are there?

Jeff Eslick: It’s hard to tell because they’re so broken up, but I would say 10 or fewer, right around the number 10.

Michael Patrick Leahy: And it is as your current understanding is it may be owned by Metro Nashville?

Jeff Eslick: I do believe so. I know they’re cutting the grass right now. And from what I understand, it was in foreclosure a few years back, and Darren Jernigan, the former council person and current state rep. for our area, helped get that purchased in part of Metro Parks.

Michael Patrick Leahy:  So that makes some sense.

Jeff Eslick:  But I’ll be looking, I’ll be looking into that soon.

Right now, we’re just, I mean, I really just tried to help a guy get a limb away from his house. And now I’ve found something that I’m super-happy that I get the opportunity to work on.

Michael Patrick Leahy: I live in a development in Spring Hill – Thompson Station area. And there’s a cemetery there. And I think the founder of Maury County is buried there.

And it’s like, again, a family cemetery. And it’s set aside and handled very nicely – but it’s interesting when you look at this when various cemeteries being kind of a history buff, like you; you look at it, it was the way that people were buried. It was typically in a family cemetery, right?

But now, I mean, he passed away in 1824.

Jeff Eslick: Hey, we’re right at 200 years from that point. How awesome will it be, the 200-year anniversary of this.

Michael Patrick Leahy: Of his death and internment.

Jeff Eslick: And I get the opportunity to try to make it better right at that time.

I’ve been up all night thinking about this. We got so many problems in the world, but this is one thing I think that can bring joy and restore some of the history.

I hate even using the word “history” because it feels bigger than that.

Michael Patrick Leahy: I think that some of the people that run the Hermitage might – that’s former President Jackson’s house.

Jeff Eslick: I know, and I’m going to reach out to George Cattell, the CEO, general manager of the Hermitage. I feel like they need to be a part of this.

I’m sure they have stuff that they can contribute: information, pictures – you know, I really would like to see a layout of the, of the plots, you know, of who’s buried where, so that we have a good understanding of, if we’re fixing this, what are we fixing and who is there.

Michael Patrick Leahy: Jackson’s home, of course, the Hermitage in Old Hickory. That’s a very nice facility, by the way.

Jeff Eslick: I’ve been through it a little bit, but I haven’t given it the time that it needs to, and I can’t wait, I’m buying a pass. You can take your dogs and let them run around on the grounds. They have so much room out there, and my dogs love it already.

We’ve been out there several times.

Michael Patrick Leahy: But it is interesting because this is the kind of project – I mean, it is this historical figure, Thomas Overton, buried there in a cemetery and disrepair now taken over by Metro because, I mean, it sounds like it’s 200 years after. So I’m sure that family is, the connection is just not there.

And if you don’t set up a fund, if you’re gonna have a family cemetery, and you don’t set up a fund that’s in an interest-bearing account, there’s not enough money to take care of it. But I think that this is a project that, you know, I think a lot of people would be willing to contribute to.

It’s not that, I mean, it’s not that much – you got to clean it up–

Jeff Eslick:  It’s the size of a house, basically – just a regular lot of land.

Michael Patrick Leahy:  But you got to clean it up–

Jeff Eslick: Rebuild the fence, rebuild the monuments, there’s a hackberry [tree] inside the cemetery portion that needs to go away. You can tell where it’s brought the ground up–

Michael Patrick Leahy: And are the grave markers broken?

Jeff Eslick: They’re all broken and need repair. There’s a mausoleum or a crypt – I don’t really know what you call that piece – but it’s, it’s open on two ends where it’s been, you know–

Michael Patrick Leahy: How far is the cemetery from the Hermitage?

Jeff Eslick: Less than two miles.

Michael Patrick Leahy: So obviously, for those history buffs – does it have a historical marker?

Jeff Eslick: It does.

Michael Patrick Leahy: Oh, it does have a historical marker – very good

Jeff Eslick: It has a historical marker about Thomas Overton right at the front.

Michael Patrick Leahy: Very good.

Because you know, being a history buff like me, when we moved to Tennessee in 1991, I didn’t know anything about the Civil War in the Western Theater. But I’d see all these markers, right?

I’d stop, you know, people would be zooming by. I’d stop, I’d read them. And that’s when you learn about the Battle of Franklin. And the various generals, John Schofield, the Confederate generals, all this.

And so, I think it’s good. And this is the kind of thing that actually can bring people together to recognize our history here in Tennessee for what it was – no better, no worse, obviously. But you know, Andrew Jackson, the first president not born in Virginia or Massachusetts.

Jeff Eslick: I represent the only district that has a president’s home and I’m certainly happy about that and want to push that and make sure that people understand the significance of our area in the formation of not just this state but the country.

Michael Patrick Leahy:  Well, absolutely.

And so thank you for bringing this to our attention. Thomas Overton, 1753-1824. Your project is to clean up that graveyard and make it presentable.

We’ll have more when we come back.

We’re talking with Jeff Eslick, city council member and Metro National Council from District 11.

This is The Tennessee Star Report. I’m Michael Patrick Leahy.