Overton, Marvin Cartmell (M. C.) Overton and Nan Jennings Papers, 1915-1942 and undated

 

Creator: Overton, Marvin Cartmell (M. C.)

Creator: Jennings, Nan.

Collection #: S 1823.2

Language: English

Biographical Sketch

Marvin Cartmell (M. C.) Overton (1878-1955) was born in Morganfield, KY, on June 13, 1878, the fifth of six children of George Buck and Sue Jane (Lawson) Overton, whose ancestral families had migrated from England to Virginia during the early colonial period. Overton's father, a Methodist minister, moved the family to Louisville, KY, in 1885. M. C. left high school after two years to become a cub reporter and then worked at other odd jobs, including four years with Bell Telephone Company, before resigning to enter medical school. While an intern, Overton left Louisville for Emma in Crosby County, Texas. Instead, he would up in Lubbock, Texas, on April 16, 1901.

He received his M.D. in March 1902 from the Louisville School of Medicine and established his practice in Lubbock’s Nicolette Hotel, traveling by buggy as far as 150 miles to treat patients. Until 1906 he was the only licensed physician in a 23-county, 21,000 square mile area, forcing him to purchase the first privately-owned automobile in Lubbock in 1908. He carried a phone receiver with him in his car that allowed him to throw a wire across overhead phone lines to contact his office in Lubbock.

In 1908 Overton donated two lots on the corner of what now is Main Street and Avenue O in Lubbock, Texas, for the construction of the city's first hospital, the Lubbock Sanitarium, established by Drs. J. N. Stoops and G. S. Murphy. The facility closed in April 1912, so Overton and Dr. Charles F. Clayton opened the second Lubbock Sanitarium September of that year at the original sanitarium site, and later, under his own recognizance, the Overton Sanitarium.

He abandoned general practice in 1925 to specialize in pediatrics at Lubbock Sanitarium, helping it evolve in 1953 into the nine-story Methodist Hospital, the forerunner of Lubbock’s Covenant Hospital.

He served on the initial council of alderman for the city from 1909 to 1910. He also served on the Lubbock school board from 1910 to about 1925. An elementary school is named for him. In 1907 he established the first residential addition to the city, the Overton Addition, on 640 acres of land bordered by Fourth and 19th streets and Avenue Q and University Avenue.

Nannie Melvina Jennings Overton was born August 17, 1890 and died May 31, 1973. Her parents were Joseph Humphreys Jennings and Eleanor Petty Dunlap Jennings. She married M. C. Overton in 1918, while she was living in Levelland, Texas.


Scope and Contents

Contains correspondence between Overton and Jennings from 1915 to 1918. Also present is a wedding announcement, a photograph, and information about Sam West's baseball career..

Restrictions

Open for Research

Related Material

For related materials in the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library, see the following collections:

++South Overton Residential Historic District (Lubbock, TX) Records, 1996.

++Nicolett Hotel Records, 1889-1893

++Marvin Cartmell (M. C.) Overton Family Papers, 1910-2012 and undated

Preferred Citation

Marvin Cartmell Overton (M. C.) Overton and Nan Jennings Papers, 1915-1942 and undated, Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas

Accession Information

Gift, 2022

Processing Information

Sarah Stephenson, 2017

Collection Inventory

Box 1

Correspondence

Newspaper Article

Photograph

Scrapbook

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