I have a book of Duck Hunting which is one of those Ecclesiastical things which puzzles me in this book was written before the second world war, when the author was off with New York Museum botanists collecting waterfowl for the people of North America to look at and study. It was in the 1935 period and they actually were in Hitler's Germany having a grand time, as the local Prussians had no idea what was coming.
In the front of my book, which is a culled library book from Corning, there is a heavy card which reads
DEDICATED IN MEMORY
to
Fred Overhiser
by
friends
to
Fred Overhiser
by
friends
I found that all touching in back engineering this in, the year would have been in this printing of 1947 or later, meaning World War II had ended.
Fred Overhiser is a very good German American name, in it should read, Fredrick Oberheiser, as that is what the German would be.
Fred will be assumed in three projection points. Point one, he was either killed in the military in World War II or Korea in those democratic started wars. Point two, he was an old man who died. Point three, he was a young man who died before his time.
In any projection Fred Overhiser was certain of one thing, he had friends who were not the type who showed up at a funeral, made a pass at the grieving family, tossed a few bucks in the memorial plate and went on to other more important things like a round of golf.
No Fred Overhiser was a gentleman of a caste of waterfowl hunters who were a brotherhood of uncommon bonds. His friends loved him, for his sportsmanship, his skill, his endurance, and his absolute Christian morality in fair game, and they recognized this as intellectuals of a poetic heart and soul in a kindred spirit, they mourned not with a passing thought, but on each duck passing over in that empty stool in the blind.
Fred Overhiser's friends were people who did not let him die, but kept him alive in memories, and memories so rich and full, that after his death, they came together and purchased a book on a sport he loved with passion to the overflowing and bestowed it upon the people of Corning in a living word of his passing.
While typing this, I began a search for Fred Overhiser, and put together his life in he was a pure German American in being a successful businessman, family man and Citizen. He was like Justice Scalia or Vice President Cheney in being avid duck hunters.
As you can see Fred Overhiser and his wonderful wife, Eliza, were very good Americans, in they not only lived long productive lives, but they gave to America a daughter named Betty, who was faithful to her husband for 56 years and it was only death which separated them.
Fred R Overhiser - Ancestry.com
search.ancestry.com/cgi.../sse.dll?gl...Fred%20R...Overhiser...Name: Fred R Overhiser. Spouse: Eliza W Overhiser. Birth: abt 1888 - New York. Residence: Corning, Steuben, New York. Residence: Corning, Steuben, New ...
Corning NY Evening Leader 1947 Grayscale - Fulton History
fultonhistory.com/.../Corning%20NY%20Evening%20%20Leader/File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View...
THE EVENING LEADER CORNING. N. Y.. PAGE THIRTEEN. R. Overhiser Elected. Head Of Steuben Auto Club;. Millard Named A Director. Fred R. Overhiser of ...Old Fulton NY Post Cards By Tom Tryniski - FultonHistory
fultonhistory.com/.../Corning%20NY%20Evening%20%20Leader/Miss Ruth Overhiser Is Named Grade. Teacher By ... ter of Mrs. Fred Overhiser and the late Mr. ... •u„lfnr the annual Winteree at|29, at the meeting of Corning ...... Old Fulton NY Post Cards By Tom Tryniski - FultonHistory
fultonhistory.com/.../Corning%20NY%20Evening%20%20Leader/QUALIFIED ARPEAKO DEALERS IN CORNING. M. H. BAKER. *. 197 E. 1st St. FRED R, OVERHISER. 42 W. Pulteney St. WM. EARING. 198 Baker St. 1.... Betty Jean Overhiser Ettington - Corning, NY - The Corning Leader
www.the-leader.com/archive/.../Betty-Jean-Overhiser-EttingtonMar 30, 2011 – Betty was born in Corning July 16th, 1929, the daughter of Fred and Eliza Overhiser. She is survived by Raymond Ettington her husband of 56 ...
I know Fred Overhiser, as I know Germans like him and I know gentlemen like him who sit among waterfowl habitat musing over Chesepeakes and Labradores, as their yes are skyward and ears tuned to the whistling wings, as their hands slowly caress their beloved shotguns, and they think back to past hunts in the smells of burnt cordite or smokeless as a friend shifts in his seat to see what is coming from behind them.
All wrapped up in an era of woolens, LL Bean rubber boots and brown duck hunting coats with pockets so deep they could hold hundreds of rounds of shells, and never loose them and bags of ducks so large one staggered to carry them.
It saddens me that the library in Corning culled this book, but it was by that dishonor, that I was able to purchase this rare volume and add it to my collection. I do not believe the people of Corning ever read that book much or checked it out, even if it's binding was fixed.
I though am gladdened by this Fred Overhiser book, in I will cherish it, and I will cherish it for the memory of his good American family, and all they gave to America in being honest moral people, whose accomplishments are greater than being President, because they raised families who did not burden the taxpayer nor ever endanger the community.
What a remarkable duck hunter Fred Overhiser was. As grande as Theodore Roosevelt, George Washington, George Custer and Ronald Reagan in their true nature of the outdoors and the morality it instilled in their families.
Fred Overhiser is in Heaven as one can see by his life, he led a virtuous life which his family passed on to America in their forensic profile.
The Overhisers in Fred and Eliza, such friends to all Americans, and such a touching tribute in a duck hunting book by intellectuals how appreciated and missed their friend.
Oh to know if his firearms are still there and just to see the shotguns which inspired all of this.
agtG
