The Ephraim Odom Family

     See Ephraim's Chart for links to his children's biographies. Legend has it that Ephraim Odom (1) (Born circa 1797, Burke Co., Ga.) and his wife, Gracy, came to Cherokee Co., Tex., with his three brothers, Randol, James, and Simeon, and their father and mother, Malachi and Mary Odom. (See family history).
     Continuing research shows that maybe Ephraim and his family did not come with the other brothers but instead stayed in Lauderdale Co., Miss., to settle the estate of another brother, John (died 1836), and to be with his family. Land deeds show that Ephraim and Gracy Odom were in Lauderdale County buying and selling land in 1841, 1849, and 1850.
     The census of 1850 in Cherokee Co., Tex., shows the families of Randol, James, and Simeon, with father Malachi, but makes no mention of Ephraim and Gracy and their family. They have not been located on any 1850 census at this writing. An early bill to Ephraim Odem (sic) from I. S. Able & Son, shows household items and sewing goods "bought July 15, Sept. 29, and Oct.19, 1851, with payment Jany. 15th AD 1852." An early note of Ephraim's (for $17.59, with 1 percent interest per month from date until paid) to Charles Vinzent was dated Rusk, Feb. 3, 1853. Another bill to Ephraim Odom from W. A. Hicks for various domestic needs, shoes, fabrics, and needles, in the amount of $21.09, is dated from Jan. to Nov., 1852. This hill was paid partly "by haulling." The earliest account of Ephraim and Gracy Odom in the Cherokee Co., Tex., land records is Dec., 1853, when they bought 320 acres of land on the Neches River. Ephraim and Gracy appear on the 1860 census in Cherokee Co., Tex.
     A letter dated July 1, 1868, leads us to believe that Ephraim had died by that time, probably in early spring, 1868: "Rev. James Odom (brother of Ephraim) informed me last spring that you had a horse which you were willing to let Mr. Vaughan have in payment of the claim of Dr. Vaughan for services in waiting on Uncle Ephraim Odom in his last sickness." signed by T. R. Bonner, "atty. for Est. Vaughan"
     A medical bill dated July 15, 1875, and a bill from a dry goods store (George D. Neely, Rusk) listing goods that may have been used for a funeral, dated May 25, 1874, indicate that Gracy probably died in May, 1874. Another small scrap of paper lists the following inventory of the property of G. A. Odom, decd: "One bay poney $50.00, twelve head of cattle $5.50 per hd. and one sow and pigs $3.50." Burial site of Ephraim and Gracy is presumed to he somewhere in Cherokee County, maybe on a farm.

Note: Original letters and hills quoted from are in the possession of Dorothy Odom Bruce, who submitted this family history.

Contributed by Dorothy Odom Bruce