About Dawson County news. (Dawsonville, Georgia) 2015-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 19, 2022)
Wednesday, January 19,2022 dawsonnews.com I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I 3A Overstreet leaves behind long record of altruism DCN file photo Ben Overstreet, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II, par ticipates in the Veterans Day parade in downtown Dawsonville on Nov. 11, 2017. Photo courtesy of Dawson County NRCS Overstreet tells a man about his corn crops. Overstreet was an avid farmer and conservationist. by Julia Fechter jfechter@dawsonnews.com To know the late Benjamin Brinson “Ben” Overstreet was to know genuine selflessness and kindness. “Over the years, he donated so much time and effort to improve the com munity... [for] things that weren’t a benefit to him personally, but they were just good for the communi ty,” said Louise McPherson of the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. Longtime Dawsonville resident Overstreet, 95, died peacefully at his home on Jan. 11, 2022. Overstreet was born in Orlando, Florida on December 4, 1926 to par ents Samuel Joseph and Annie Belle Brinson Overstreet. His family moved to Emanuel County, Georgia, while he was a young boy, and he graduated from Emanuel County Institute in 1942. After that, he attended North Georgia College in Dahlonega, Georgia when the school was just a two-year college. After graduating, he enlisted in the U.S. Marines during World War n and served in the Pacific theater of the conflict, end ing his service on Chi Chi Jima in 1947. He returned to North Georgia College after the war and met Mary Joe Thompson. They wed and moved to Dawsonville, where he farmed from 1949 until 2016. Overstreet farmed com, soybeans and tall fescue grass. He raised cattle, hogs and poultry. His land was producing 126 bushels of com per acre in 1956, and by 1973, he became the first farmer in Georgia to produce more than 200 bushels of com per acre. Throughout the years, he won over 200 awards from the state and national com growers associations. He and Mary Joe received the Centennial Family Farm Award from the Department of Natural Resources for continuously operating a farm that had been in her family for more than 100 years. As an avid conservation ist of his land and the great er Etowah Valley, he served as a volunteer supervisor for the Upper Chattahoochee Soil and Water Conservation District for 40-plus years. In 2005, he was inducted into the Georgia Association of Conservation Districts Hall of Fame. He also served as the vice chairman of the Dawson County Farm Bureau at one point. Clark Buesse, a retired UGA Extension agent for Dawson County, knew Overstreet for 35 years through his job and called the farmer “probably the best man I’ve ever known.” Not only was Overstreet respected for his conserva tion and agricultural knowledge, his character was also solid. “He (Overstreet) was always mild-mannered and had a concern for his fami ly and community. I never heard him say anything bad about anyone,” Buesse said. Fouise McPherson like wise praised Overstreet’s passion for teaching people about conservation and encouraging youths’ inter est in farming. She mentioned his will ingness to try new conser vation methods, like plant ing Coastal Bermuda grass for his pastures or having trees moved and anchored to the banks of the Etowah River on his property. “He was one of the first people around to do no-till farming...meaning you didn’t plow your ground every year,” McPherson said. “You leave it (crop remnants) on top of the ground to protect from ero sion.” She explained that Overstreet would also host field days for other local farmers to come and observe his practices so they could then return to their farms and implement those same measures. “He cared a lot about people, and he’d take time to talk to people,” McPherson added. “Even [with] my kids when I was little, he’d show them his old seed machine over there and old tractors... even though they’re grown now, they love Mr. Ben.” Overstreet’s care for peo ple extended to his advoca cy to help water service come to Dawson County three decades ago. A 2010 DCN article by Frank Reddy explained that Overstreet was a founding member and vice chairman of the Etowah Water and Sewer Authority. In 1980, the Georgia General Assembly created the authority as a political sub division of the state and a public corporation. Five years later, a groundbreak ing was held for a water treatment plant and distri bution plant to serve east ern Dawson County. The plant’s service began in August 1986. Getting to that point required an extra amount of effort by Overstreet and other board members. “He literally went door- to-door selling water meters and trying to get people service established,” Etowah Water and Sewer president Brooke Anderson said. “Everything that’s made Dawson County fan tastic has been built on the foundation he laid as a board member...we all owe him a huge debt of gratitude.” The authority’s board then spearheaded getting sewage in the area. The addition of a wastewater treatment plant in 1995 to serve west Dawson ulti mately convinced the peo ple with North Georgia Premium Outlets to locate the outlet mall in the coun ty. “Our county wouldn’t be what it is today if it wasn’t for water and sewage,” said Overstreet in 2010, “because there’s no way businesses would have come here without it.” Overstreet was likewise a charter member of the Dawson County Lions Club. He also served as a director of the Dawson County Bank for a number of years and continued after it was acquired by United Community Bank. Other organizations he served for include the Dawson County Board of Education and the Etowah Lodge #222 F & AM, where he was a member for 50 years. He and Mary Joe were members of the First Baptist Church of Dawsonville. James Askew, the presi dent of United Community Bank in Dawsonville, called Overstreet one of the most “common-sense peo ple I’ve ever met”. “If you needed to know something about the com munity or needed to ask questions...he’s somebody that I always valued his opinion,” Askew said. Askew remembers Overstreet as very person able and charitable, the kind of person who’d help crank out hotdogs during customer appreciation events or talk to all the employees and learn their names when visiting the bank. “He had a knowledge of the community going way far back that was invaluable to us,” Askew added. Ted Bearden, who also served on the bank board with Overstreet, reaffirmed the late man as a “pillar in the community.” He also mentioned his respect for Overstreet and view of him as a worthy mentor. “The only [other] way I would know to describe Ben Overstreet was that he was the ultimate gentle man,” Bearden said. “His demeanor was the same every time you saw him. 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