Biography:  Lucinda Milstead Odom, Coke County, TX

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Submitted by Mary Love Berryman - marylove@tyler.net
15 May 2002
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The Observer/Enterprise, 3 May 2002, Robert Lee, TX

Out of the Ordinary
by Jane Austin Bruckner

(Continuing to celebrate Women's History, rancher Garland Richards 
writes about his great great grandmother Lucinda Odom buying Fort 
Chadboume from the widow Mary Maverick and paying with gold. This 
and other stories published in "Grandmother Stories from the Heart 
of Texas," Eakin Press, 02002.)

Lucinda Milstead Odom
     by Garland Richards

Lucinda was a smart woman who knew what she wanted.  When she saw the 
large sandstone "house," (officers quarters) among the forts buildings, 
with the Butterfield Overland Mail stopping by the front door, and the 
wide sweeping vistas, she knew she was home.

Perhaps it was the spacious double officers quarters sandstone building 
she wanted as a home for her family, but she also wanted the land. 
Grandmother paid $500 in gold for the fort and 640 acres. Imagine this 
transaction in 1877; Widow Mary Maverick and Lucinda Odom making a deal 
near present day Highway 277, eleven miles northeast of Bronte, 
Coke Co., Texas.

Who was this grandmother? Tall dark-haired Lucinda Mistead was born 
March 21, 1829 in Baldwin County, Alabama. She met and married Thomas 
Lawsom Odom before they came in wagons to Bandera County, west of San 
Antonio.  Lucinda's father with them and camped in tents on the 
Medina River making cypress shingles, until they could build a sawmill 
and cabins. Their 2200 acre tract of land was in the heart of Indian 
Territory, and every day there was danger.  During the Civil War; 
Thomas was in Captain J. A. Adams Company in the Home Guard around 
San Antonio, while Lucinda stayed in Bandera.

Between 1873 and 1875, Thomas and Garland Odom were busy trailing 
cattle from San Antonio to Kansas City, leaving Lucinda to care for 
the family and property.   Fort Chadbourne, named for Lieutenant 
Theodore Chadbourne, killed in the Mexican War; was built in 1852 by 
the U. S. Army.  It was maintained until 1873 as one of several forts 
to protect the masses of people moving west, then sold to an individual. 
She saw it as an investment in the future.

Lucinda's purchase was the center of Mr. Odom's headquarters for his 
cattle operations that later encompassed over 100,000 acres of land 
and the fort is now listed on the National Registry of Historical 
Places.  Lucinda Odom passed away at age 53, August 21,1882, leaving 
her husband and nine children a great legacy of family and place. 
Because the land has been in private ownership for generations, the 
family has a very large collection of artifacts.

Garland Richards, an 8th generation grandson lives with his wife Lana,
near the fort, and is now overseeing the reassembling of the fallen 
walls of the fort.  In 1999 the Fort Chadbourne Foundation was created
to protect and preserve the historical assets of the site as educational
resources.  You can visit the fort during daylight hours or the website:
www.fortchadbourne.org.

Contact the Chadbourne Ranch at 915-743-2555 or by e-mail at 
fortchadbourne@msn.com.

Permission granted by Observer/Enterprise for publication in the
Coke County TXGenWeb Archives