Overton’s 1st schooling was in a log school-house 14 X 24. He went for three months when he was ten years old. It was a subscription school where a school master solicited the patrons and when he got 25 pupils at $1 each, he would teach for 3 months, boarding around with the patrons. The neighbors met and built the school house in the forest. They also made crude furniture which consisted of seats and the writing desk. The seats were made by splitting about an 8 inch chestnut or poplar sapling, and hewing the largest splinters off and inserting four legs it was complete unless they preferred a back which each pupil furnished himself. The writing desk was made by boring three auger holes in the log just below the window, which was merely an opening made by sawing a part of the log out on both sides. In these holes they drove wooden pins which supported the puncheon or slab of wood about 12 feet long and this is where they learned to write. The pens were made of goose quills and the ink of poke berry juice.
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