Biography by great-grandson Bryan S. Godfrey:

Herbert was born and raised on a farm on Goose Creek near Huddleston in the Southside of Bedford County. He was the eldest of the ten children of Berry Zone Overstreet and Lucy Cheek Overstreet, one of whom died in infancy. When he was almost an adult, around 1902, his parents moved to and later purchased the home and a small portion of the land of the "Old Colonel Creasey Place," the former home of Colonel David H. Creasey (1809-1891), a distant cousin. This farm is located on what is now State Route 817, about a quarter mile west of its intersection with Route 732. Difficult Creek flows behind the farm, and it in turn flows into Goose Creek. This area is known unofficially as Chestnut Fork in reference to the intersection of Routes 732 and 722 about a mile from the Overstreet farm. The home at this intersection belonged to the Thurman family, but Herbert's aunt, Malissa ("Liss") Overstreet Foster (1877-1951), and her husband Henry were tenants at this home many years where their four children were raised.

After he became a young adult, Herbert went to work in Roanoke and in Bedford, taking various odd jobs. In Roanoke he apparently lived with one or more of his aunts and uncles on his mother's side, as shown by letters he wrote home from Roanoke between 1903 and 1906 now in the possession of his niece, Wilma Overstreet Noell of Bedford. On January 3, 1907, he wrote a letter home to his mother while living in Bedford City, where he worked for the Parker-Ayres Company, a hardware store. This letter is as follows:

Bedford City, Va., Jan. 3, 1907

Well Mama,
I wont treat you all as bad as you all do me. I will write you a few lines to let you hear from me. I am well and hope you all the same. I weighed 160 lbs today. I still like alright. I had a nice time up here Christmas. I carried Bessie home Sunday but it was so late I couldnt come by home.
Sunday night I went over to Updikes and had a fine time. Monday night we all went to the Sunday School intertainment (sic) at the Baptice (sic) church. I enjoyed it fine. I got an orange and box of candy at the Methodist Church people tell me that I will be a Methodist before long. Tell Howard that I reckon the last of xmas seem dull to him as Addie were up here.
tell Lefie to write to me and let me see how he can write well. I reckon tobacco is in auder (sic) now as I see some coming in. it is selling very well. tell them to give Sam a nother ear of corn I want him to catch Sal.
I will send my clothes the first chance I have I I dont know when I can come. the roads are so bad I wont come until the mud dries up some. well I will close for this time. wishing you all a successful new year. Good by.
I remain as ever
your loving Son
Herbert

So by the time this letter was written, Herbert had met his wife Bessie, and they were married three months later on April 24, 1907. Through the Updike family, they were second cousins once removed, as Herbert's father and Bessie were both great-grandchildren of Samuel and Jemima Willis Updike. Herbert and Bessie probably met while she was teaching school at the Glady Branch Schoolhouse near the home of Herbert's parents at Chestnut Fork. They were married in the home of Bessie's father and stepmother, Amon and Bettie Updike, at 104 Judd Street in Bedford City.

After their wedding, Herbert and Bessie settled down in a small farm house in the same hollow where Herbert's parents had moved a few years earlier. Between the two houses is a cowpasture which slopes down to a spring, which became the water source for both families. This spring flows into Difficult Creek. Lucille, Gladys, Cecil, and Bernard were born in the original home here. However, in 1915, while the family was working in the fields, the house caught on fire, destroying most of it except perhaps the kitchen. For the next six weeks, Herbert, Bessie, and their four children they had at the time lived with Herbert's parents next door. Conditions were very cramped in this small home, as Herbert's parents still had about four younger children living there. Herbert rebuilt the house and made it larger. It has three bedrooms upstairs and one downstairs. Interestingly, there is a tall tree next to the kitchen, where the fire occurred, which still has visible fire scars eighty-five years later. The next four children of Herbert and Bessie, Mable, Ray, Rudolph ("Rudy"), and Isabelle ("Isy White"), were born in the larger restored home.

All of his life, Herbert was mainly a tobacco and cattle farmer, as were most farmers in Bedford County. It has been often remarked that all he knew was hard work on the farm. He died before I was born, but I can certainly say that his eldest son Cecil, the only one who continued the family tradition of farming, inherited this work ethic. Daughter Mable also ran a farm many years while her husband J.W. worked in Roanoke.

Herbert, Bessie, and their eight children were baptized members of Quaker Baptist Church, located on Route 722 within sight of the Overstreet farm. This was so named because it was originally a Quaker meeting house, known as Lower Goose Creek Monthly Meeting, when numerous Quaker families migrated from Pennsylvania and Loudoun County, Virginia to that section of Bedford County in the late 1700's. Some of Herbert and Bessie's ancestors were among these families, including Herbert's maternal great-great-great-grandparents, Jehu Lewis (1723?-1805?) and Alice Maris Lewis (1726?-1820?), who deeded the land upon which Lower Goose Creek Meeting was erected. (For additional information on the history of Quaker Baptist Church and Herbert's family connected with it, refer to the Notes on Jehu Lewis, Ancestor #412). By the 1800's, the Quaker stronghold in the Southside of Bedford County had died out, mainly due to so many Quakers having gone West or marrying into families of other denominations. The Baptists became the dominant faction, and for this reason Quaker Baptist Church was organized on the site of the former Quaker meeting house. Herbert's parents and numerous other relations also attended this church. In 1924, a photograph was taken of the church homecoming. In 1998, several living persons were able to identify nearly all of those who were pictured. Herbert and Bessie were not in the picture, but his parents, most of his siblings, and most of his children were. Nearly everyone in the picture was related to Herbert and Bessie some way. Herbert served as a deacon of Quaker Baptist Church for many years.

Herbert was a Republican, and Bessie was a Democrat, so they never voted in elections because they realized they would cancel one another's votes (that is, after women got the vote in 1920). They often enjoyed having political arguments with one another.

Herbert was a member of the Huddleston Ruritan Club.

When Herbert and Bessie celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in April, 1957, his mother was still living. Lucy Cheek Overstreet was 95 years old when she saw her eldest son celebrate 50 years of marriage, and she attended the reception at Herbert and Bessie's house. She died ten months later.

Below is an article about their golden anniversary celebration from "The Bedford Democrat," Thursday, April 25, 1957:

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MR. AND MRS. HERBERT C. OVERSTREET OBSERVE 50TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY

Mr. and Mrs. Herbert C. Overstreet celebrated their golden wedding anniversary with open house Sunday afternoon at their home near Chestnut Fork. Guests were invited from 2 to 5 p.m.

The Overstreet's were married April 24, 1907, by the Rev. S.J. Battin at his home in Bedford.

Mr. Overstreet, who is 71 years old, is a son of Mrs. Lucy Cheek Overstreet of Bedford County and the late B.Z. Overstreet, and Mrs. Overstreet, who is 69, is a daughter of the late Amon and Isabella White Updike of Bedford. She taught in Bedford County schools several years.

They have four sons, four daughters and 10 grandchildren, all of whom attended the anniversary with other members of the Overstreet and Updike families and many friends.

Their children are Rudolph Overstreet, Bernard Overstreet and Cecil Overstreet of Bedford, Ray Overstreet of Warwick, Miss Isabella White Overstreet of Bedford, Mrs. J.W. Hawkins of Huddleston, Mrs. L. Rucker Robertson of Roanoke and Mrs. Wesley N. Laing of Richmond.

The home was attractively decorated with tulips, lilacs and apple blossoms, and beautiful warm spring weather prevailed to make it a perfect occasion. Many gifts were brought by those who called.

Mr. and Mrs. Overstreet wore white carnations and those serving at the table wore red camilias grown by Mrs. Laing.

Presiding at the punch bowl and table were their daughters; Miss Joyce Lee Overstreet of Bedford and Miss Linda Sue Hawkins of Huddleston, granddaughters; Mrs. William Updike of Warwick, niece of Mrs. Overstreet; Mrs. Howard E. Crouch of Bedford, Mr. Overstreet's sister; and Mrs. L.H. Overstreet of Floyd, sister of Mrs. Overstreet and sister-in-law of Mr. Overstreet.

Five members of the family were in service in World War II. Their son Bernard was a US Air Force officer in England and participated in many raids over Europe. Their daughter Gladys, a graduate of Virginia Baptist Hospital School of Nursing in Lynchburg, served in the Army Nurse Corps in North Africa and Italy. Her husband, Dr. Wesley N. Laing, served in the Army Chaplain Corps in the Pacific Theater. He is now assistant professor of history at the University of Richmond and pastor of Midlothian Baptist Church. Dr. Laing and his son, Jack, a student at the University of Richmond, drove up following morning service at Midlothian. L. Rucker Robertson, auditor of the First National Exchange Bank in Roanoke, who married their daughter Lucille, was in the Army in World War II. The fifth member of the family in service was Rudolph, who was with the Army in Georgia.

Among those attending were all of Mr. Overstreet's brothers; his 95-year-old mother, Mrs. B.Z. Overstreet; Walter Updike, of Warwick, Mrs. Overstreet's brother; and Mr. and Mrs. Stanley B. Goggin of Bedford Route 3, who were celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary.

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In the last decade of his life, Herbert witnessed many deaths in his immediate family. Even though he was the eldest of nine children (a tenth child died in infancy), he outlived six of them. His brothers Howard and Delbert and his sister Ollie all died of cancer within a few years after their mother died in 1958, and in 1966 his brother Jim, who had retired with his wife to Florida, died of a heart attack. In 1965, Herbert's and Bessie's eldest child, Lucille Overstreet Robertson, died of breast cancer at the age of 57.

Herbert was in fairly good health and was able to continue working on his farm until within a few months of his death at age 82. He was climbing on his tractor when he felt symptoms of a stroke and was rushed to the Bedford County Memorial Hospital. He was in a comatose condition afterwards and lived less than two months, dying on October 14, 1967.

Surprisingly, even though they lived into their early eighties and owned a farm with over 100 acres, Herbert and Bessie died without having made wills. After the deaths of Great-Granddad and Great-Grandma Overstreet, their home continued to be occupied by their youngest daughter Isy, and after their mother's death in 1970, Gladys moved in with her, where they lived together until Gladys went into assisted living in 1994. But changes occurred following the deaths of both Uncle Cecil and Aunt Gladys in 2000. In April, 2001, due to many frustrations in the winters about preventing the pipes from freezing and other inconveniences of living in an old country house, Aunt Isy decided to move into an apartment in the City of Bedford. The heirs of Herbert and Bessie Overstreet sold the house and the 78 acres of land surrounding it in July, 2001 for $161,000 to Mr. Bobbie Blankenship, who had restored several old properties in that area. This land was in the Herbert C. Overstreet family for nearly a century. Adjacent to this land, and across the hollow, was the land which formerly belonged to Great-Granddad Overstreet's parents which his sister, Essie Overstreet Crouch (1902-1986), occupied and then passed on to her only child, Kenneth Elwood Crouch (1924-1995). Following Kenneth's death, this land and the homeplace of Zone and Lucy Overstreet were sold to people who did an excellent job renovating the house that was built in 1800. It has recently been sold again for $150,000. The only land in the area which will remain in the family is that which was farmed by Uncle Cecil Overstreet. Following his death in June, 2000, his widow, Lucille, and daughter and son-in-law, Joyce Lee and Billy Hackworth, who lived together in Bedford City, decided to keep the farm and renovate the house. That farm was sold in 2014 by Mr. Hackworth following Joyce's death in 2012. Also, Uncle Rudy, the youngest son, his wife Ruth, and daughter Diane, had built and moved into a brick rancher on his portion of the inheritance a short distance down Headen's Bridge Road from his parents' home, where, as of 2014, their oldest granddaughter resides with her husband and where the middle granddaughter and her husband had a house built next door.

The following is Great-Granddad Overstreet's obituary from the "Bedford Bulletin-Democrat":

H.C. Overstreet

Herbert Colon Overstreet, 82, of Bedford, died Oct. 14 in the Bedford County Memorial Hospital after an illness of several months.
Born in Bedford County, he was a son of the late Berry Zone and Lucy Henry Cheek Overstreet. He was a farmer, a former deacon of Quaker Baptist Church near Chestnut Fork and a member of the Huddleston Ruritan Club.
He is survived by his wife, Mrs. Bessie Updike Overstreet; three daughters, Mrs. Gladys O. Laing, Mrs. J.W. Hawkins and Miss Isabelle White Overstreet of Bedford; four sons, Cecil C. Overstreet, R. Bernard Overstreet and Rudolph G. Overstreet of Bedford and M. Ray Overstreet of Newport News; one brother, Otey S. Overstreet of Bedford; one sister, Mrs. Howard E. Crouch of Bedford; 12 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Funeral services were conducted Oct. 15 by the Rev. Olin V. Glidden of Bedford and the Rev. Lester F. Gayton of Danville from Quaker Baptist Church near Chestnut Fork.
Burial was in the church cemetery. Active pallbearers were Mikie R. Chafin, Nelson C. Ferrell, J. Ray Wilkes, T.L. Johnson, Clinton H. Creasey and J. Edgar Foster.