Overmyer, David, 1847-1907.

Attorney, political candidate, Democratic Party stalwart. Of North Vernon, Ind.; Topeka, Kan.

David Overmyer was born in Pickaway County, Ohio, on May 1, 1847. He moved with his parents to Jackson County, Ind., in 1849. He attended school at Reddington, near Seymour, and secured collegiate training at Asbury University (now DePauw University) (Greencastle, Ind.). He left school in 1868 and went to Indianapolis to study law. In September 1869 he was admitted to the Indiana bar and practiced at North Vernon, Ind., until 1882. At that time he moved to Topeka, Kan., and prospered as an attorney there. He became a distinguished lawyer and prominent citizen. In 1885 and 1886, he served as a member of the State Legislature as an independent Republican. He was the 4th Congressional District candidate as a Democrat in 1888 and lost. The same result occurred in 1894 as he ran for governor. In 1896, he was a delegate at large to the National Democratic Convention, and by special request of the Kansas and Missouri delegations, he seconded the nomination of William Jennings Bryan. He was a delegate at large again in 1900 and served on the resolutions committee. He introduced the party platform plank which called on Congress to exercise its whole Constitutional power over the mails and interstate commerce in order to repress trusts. In January 1901 he lost the U.S. Senate contest to Joseph Ralph Burton. In 1904 Overmyer was a delegate at large once more at the St. Louis Democratic Party Convention where he was elected delegation chairman. He was the Democratic nominee for Kansas attorney general in 1906 but lost in the general election. He was a strong worker for his party and always took an interest in campaigns. He first became noticed outside of Kansas when he argued the Kansas "original package" case before the U.S. Supreme Court. The decision in this case settled the law governing so called boycotts by deciding the boycott was illegal.