Lee Slater OVERMAN, Congress, NC (1854-1930)

OVERMAN, Lee Slater, (son-in-law of Augustus Summerfield Merrimon), a Senator from North Carolina; born in Salisbury, Rowan County, N.C., January 3, 1854; attended private schools and graduated from Trinity College (now Duke University), Durham, N.C., in 1874; taught school two years; private secretary to the Governor 1877-1879; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1878 and began practice in Salisbury, N.C., in 1880; member, State house of representatives 1883, 1885, 1887, 1893, 1899, and served as speaker in 1893; president of the North Carolina Railroad Co. in 1894; unsuccessful Democratic candidate for United States Senator in 1895; president of the Salisbury Savings Bank; member of the board of trustees of the University of North Carolina and Duke University; presidential elector on the Democratic ticket in 1900; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in 1903; reelected in 1909, 1914, 1920 and 1926 and served from March 4, 1903, until his death; chairman, Committee on Revolutionary Claims (Sixty-first Congress), Committee on Woman Suffrage (Sixty-second Congress), Committee on Rules (Sixty-third through Sixty-fifth Congresses), Committee on Engrossed Bills (Sixty-sixth Congress); died in Washington, D.C., December 12, 1930; funeral services were held in the Chamber of the United States Senate; interment in Chestnut Hill Cemetery, Salisbury, N.C.

Bibliography

American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; U.S. Congress. Memorial Addresses. 71st Cong., 3rd sess., 1930-1931. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1931; Watson, Richard L., Jr. “Principle, Party, and Constituency: The North Carolina Congressional Delegation, 1917-1919.” North Carolina Historical Review 56 (July 1959): 298-323.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present