The James A. Odom Family

See James' Chart for links to his children's biographies.

      James A. Odom, farmer, lay preacher, patriarch, and rolling stone, was born circa 1806, Washington Co., Ala., while it was Indian country. He was the fifth of 10 children of Malachi and Mary Russell Odom.
      James A. Odom married Margaret Pickens (born 1815, South Carolina, died Feb. 14, 1858, Gent, Cherokee Co., Tex.) circa 1830 in Wayne Co., Miss. Nothing more is known about her.
      About 1832, James A. and Margaret Pickens Odom joined his parents and most of his brothers and sisters in the newly settled Buckatunna Creek area in Lauderdale Co., Miss., about 10 miles from Meridian. The Odoms were all Methodists. Almost every Odom family has a John Wesley and many have an Asbury. James' middle name was probably Asbury. While James was never ordained by The Methodist Church, as some of his brothers were, he was a lay minister all his life. Lauderdale County deed records show that James and Margaret transferred 40 acres of land to The Methodist Church for a campground site.
      In 1846, James and Margaret and their children were part of the Odom trek to Texas mentioned in the Malachi Odom history. They bought land along One-Arm Creek on the east side of Gent Mountain in Cherokee County. There they lived and farmed and had four more children. There, too, Margaret died and left James with 12 children, the youngest only two. With such a responsibility, it is not surprising that James married within a year. He married Mrs. Susannah Williams, a widow with a son and daughter. James and Susannah, moved to Ellis Co., Tex., where three more children were born.
      After Margaret's death, James never stayed long in any one place, He was in Ellis County in 1860-61, then back in Cherokee County for a while, and later was in Van Zandt County. Susannah, his second wife, did not live long after their youngest child was born, and the last three children were put in an orphanage until their half sister, Betty Acker, married and took them into her home. Meanwhile, James married again to a widow with three daughters. She is listed only as L. Odom.
      The last years of James' life are a mystery, He still had property in Cherokee County when he died in 1876, and it may be that he died in Cherokee County. If so, he is probably buried in the old Odom Cemetery near Maydelle. At any rate, with 15 children and five step-children, he left his mark on East Texas.

Submitted by Virginia Singletary