Introduction

Biography

Charles was the son of Rich­ard Carl­ton Ov­er­ton and Ar­ri­e­tta Ann Ov­er­ton. He mar­ried twice, to Ra­chel Kel­logg Bow­ro­san (1868), and Vir­gin­ia S. Beebe.

At one time, he was the largest in­di­vid­ual land own­er in Con­ey Is­land, where he had a large gen­er­al bu­si­ness for ma­ny years.

In 1857, he built and op­er­at­ed the Ori­ent­al Gym­na­si­um at Bow­ery and Bay­ard Streets in Man­hat­tan, which had a mem­ber­ship of 1,000 its first year.

In 1884, he built the first church in Co­ney Is­land, known as the Brigh­ton Cha­pel.

He was a Pres­by­ter­ian Sun­day school su­per­in­ten­dent on Sta­ten Is­land, New York.

He took pride on hav­ing met Pre­si­dent Ab­ra­ham Lin­coln in 1861, and was said to have been the first per­son to drive a horse and car­riage ov­er the Brook­lyn Bridge.

He is al­so re­mem­bered as one of the de­sign­ers of the “Christ­ian Flag” in 1907.