DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. We're talking about Dr. James Odiorne — born 1816, died 1887 — and Blanco County remembers him as one of those men who seems too big for a single life.
Prominent pioneer physician. Civic leader. The kind of fellow who, if you needed something done, was already halfway there.
He'd practiced medicine in Illinois and Kentucky before Texas even crossed his mind, but in 1857 he settled in, and by 1860 he'd made his way to Blanco County, which tells you something right there about a man who keeps moving toward the frontier. He served as commissioner and chief justice of Blanco County through the 1860s. He was a Civil War surgeon at Fort Mason.
He owned a newspaper — 1885 to 1887. The man collected responsibilities the way some folks collect regrets. Now, as a doctor out on those Texas roads, he went by horseback or gig, regardless of weather.
You let that settle in. Regardless of weather. That's not a throwaway line — that's a creed.
And when the drugstores back East couldn't get medicine out to a place like Blanco County, Dr. Odiorne didn't wring his hands. Scarcity of drugs led him to use native herbs for medication.
And for a sedative — opium — he grew and milked garden poppies himself. The frontier, it turns out, has a way of making a man inventive. Which brings us to the part of this story that lands hard.
Dr. James Odiorne died of burns when alcohol exploded during the compounding of medicine in his drugstore near this very site. The man who rode through any weather to reach his patients, the man who grew his own medicine when the world wouldn't provide it — he was taken by the work itself. 1887.
The marker doesn't editorialize, and neither should I. Some endings speak plainly enough on their own.
What the marker says
(1816-1887) Prominent pioneer physician, civic leader. Practiced medicine in Illinois and Kentucky before settling in Texas in 1857; moved to Blanco County in 1860. He was Civil War surgeon at Fort Mason, Tex. Served as commissioner and chief justice of Blanco County, 1860s; owned a newspaper, 1885-87. As doctor he went by horseback or gig, regardless of weather. Scarcity of drugs led him to use native herbs for medication; for a sedative (opium), grew and milked garden poppies. He died of burns when alcohol exploded during the compounding of medicine in his drugstore near this site. (1972)