DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, if you want a story about a man who came a long way and kept on building, pull up a chair and listen close, because John Odle's story has all the makings of one. Odle was a Tennessee man, born in 1824.
He came to Texas in 1843, and he didn't come alone — he'd married Lucinda Reeder the year before, so this was already a family venture from the start. The two of them made their way to this corner of Bosque County in 1856, and if you think the journey ended there, well, it was really just gettin' started. Around 1860, John set to work on a cabin.
Oak logs, fitted and stacked by hand. Not fancy, but solid — the kind of thing a man builds when he means to stay. And they did stay, John and Lucinda and what would grow into a family of thirteen children.
Thirteen. That cabin had to be earning its keep every single day. The plan was always for the cabin to be a beginning, not the end.
Odle had his eye on somethin' more substantial — a rock house, the kind that says permanence. But between raising that family and what was coming for the country, there were other demands on a man's time. The Civil War stretched from 1861 to 1865, and during those years John Odle served in a frontier ranger company.
Texas's frontier wasn't sitting still just because the nation was tearing itself apart elsewhere. On January 8, 1865, Odle fought in the Battle of Dove Creek, against Kickapoo Indians — one of the last and bloodiest engagements on the Texas frontier in that era. Lucinda Reeder Odle passed in 1890.
John Odle lived on until 1913. The cabin still stands. Oak logs, hand-hewn, raised about 1860.
The rock house eventually got built. The family of thirteen grew up. But it's the cabin that's still here telling the story — and some beginnings, it turns out, are worth holding onto.
What the marker says
A native of Tennessee, pioneer John Odle (1824-1913) moved to Texas in 1843, one year after his marriage to Lucinda Reeder (d. 1890). They came to this area in 1856 and built this cabin of oak logs about 1860. They occupied this structure until Odle could erect a more substantial rock house for their family of 13 children. During the Civil War (1861-1865), Odle served in a frontier ranger company and fought in the Battle of Dove Creek, January 8, 1865, against Kickapoo Indians. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1978