An industrious blacksmith enslaved by John Overton honored with marker in Forest Hills

An industrious blacksmith enslaved by John Overton honored with marker in Forest Hills

The descendants of a blacksmith enslaved by John Overton Jr. unveiled a historical marker to his legacy on Saturday. Hiram and Eveline Overton “self-emancipated,” as the roadside marker explains, and set up shop on Granny White Pike near Otter Creek Road. They fled Travellers Rest in the early days of the Civil War and moved just a few miles away. Their enslaver — who was one of the richest men in Tennessee at the time — never came looking. That…