Overton County Courthouse After Fire and Before 1900

— photo source: Ronald Dishman

Courthouse Fire — April, 1865

Perhaps the greatest financial loss in this County during the Civil War was the burning of the courthouse in Livingston, which occurred in April 1865, near the close of the war, and which deed apparently accomplished no purpose toward the winning of the war of bringing peace to a war torn County.

This building was burned by Capt. John Francis and a small band of Confederate guerillas, who came down from Kentucky on a raid.

Almost all of the public records made from the beginning of the County (est. 1806) were destroyed except the deed books in the office of the County register, which had been hidden in a cellar under the house of James Richardson who was the County register when the war started. Richardson lived at the time on the lot on the north east corner of the Public Square, near where Lester Holman now lives [in 1976].

A few record books in the offices of the County Clerk, the circuit Court Clerk and the clerk and master were also saved.

Source: Bicentennial Echoes of the History of Overton County, Tennessee, by Robert L. and Mary Eldridge