Hiram and Eveline Overton's Wagon and Blacksmith Shop

Hiram Overton was enslaved by John Overton Jr., one of the richest men in Tennessee. He and Eveline self-emancipated early in the Civil War, leaving Travellers Rest for a place only a few miles off; their enslaver was fighting for the Confederacy and never came after them. Hiram worked for the Union, and in a 1910 federal interview he said he wanted the Union to win. The couple bought land and left records that a descendant, Aisha Francis, found in the National Archives. Their school for Black children ran on the site until 1930.

What the plaque says

Hiram and Eveline Overton's Wagon and Blacksmith Shop Emancipating themselves from Travelers Rest during the Civil War, Hiram Overton (1838-1911) and his wife, Eveline (Bradford) Overton (1841-1917), became prominent African American farmers and entrepreneurs in Forest Hills. Near this site, they opened a blacksmith shop by 1869. As Nashville rebuilt post-Civil War, Overton's Wagon and Blacksmith Shop provided vital services such as horseshoeing, wagon maintenance, and tool repair to clients in Davidson and Williamson Counties. As upstanding members of the community, with their financial resources, they began a school for African American children, despite opposition.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Negley — 5.9 mi
  The largest inland stone fort of the Civil War, built in 1862 on St. Cloud Hill by more than 2,700 conscripted Black laborers, hundreds of whom died.
• National Museum of African American Music — 6.8 mi
  A downtown Nashville museum, opened in 2021, tracing gospel, blues, jazz, rhythm and blues and hip-hop through Black history from 1619 to 2016.
• Ryman Auditorium — 6.9 mi
  The 1892 brick tabernacle in downtown Nashville that was the Grand Ole Opry's home from 1943 to 1974, now a National Historic Landmark and working concert hall.
• Civil Rights Room at the Nashville Public Library — 6.9 mi
  A room in the downtown library with a circular lunch counter, a timeline and oral histories of the 1960 Nashville sit-ins, a few blocks from the stores where they began.

More markers nearby

• Battle of Nashville: Redoubt No. 5 — 2.2 mi
• Hood's Retreat December 16, 1864 — 2.3 mi
• Battle of Nashville: Redoubt No. 4 — 2.5 mi
• Confederate Defenses — 2.6 mi