Tidbit

It has been the fashion among great cities to erect a monument in bronze or marble to its founders. Memphis has dedicated to its founder the most unique memorial ever conceived by a grateful people, in the most beautiful woodland park to be found in any American city. It was purchased from the family of some of his descendants in 1901 and by a popular vote named in his honor, Overton Park.

Here in a large part of its bounds nature remains untouched by the hand of man, and giant trees, hoary with age when Overton bought the ground from John Rice in 1794, and which were probably there when De Soto came to the Chickasaw Bluffs, rear their heads on every hand, while underneath them wild flowers bloom in primitive beauty and the children of modern Memphis roam in unrestrained freedom in its shaded walks.

Beginnings of West Tennessee (p. 131) by Samuel Cole Williams, 1930