Garland G. Odom

Among the foremost men in the cattle industry of Texas was G.G. Odom, of Ballinger, Texas. He was born in Baldwin county, Alabama, December 16, 1852, and was brought to Texas by his parents a year later. The family settled at San Angonio where his father, Thomas L. Odom, engaged in ranching. Garland Odom was a cowboy on his father's ranch until 1872, when he embarked in the cattle business for himself, becoming a trailer and driving his herds to Kansas markests. In 1876 he and his father drove 4,000 head of cattle to Runnells county and established the O.D. Ranch, with Fort Chadbourne as headquarters. While engaged in trail driving, Mr. Odom met and enjoyed the friendship of such old timers as Dewees, Maberry, Dawson, Fountain, Hemsley, Nunn, Burnett, Deedis, Lowe, Slaughter, Collins, Cood Adams, and others whose names are familiar to the cowboys of those days.

In 1879 he organized the Odom-Luckett Land & Livestock Company, of which he was general manager, and proceeded to buy and acquire title to a large body of land. In 1883 his company fenced in about 100,000 acres, the first patsure of any great importance in that section of the state. This met with a great deal of opposition from a certain element, and "wire cutting" gave the company no end of trouble, the "cutters" clipping about fourty miles in one night. In 1886 Mr. Odom drove a large herd to Arizona and established a ranch at White Mountain, in Apache county, and again took up trailing, driving several herds to Montana and the Dakotas.

Mr. Odom became connected with leading business interests of Ballinger, Texas, and in all of his ventures he attained remarkable success. He was married at San Antonio, January 28, 1875, to Miss Sallie M. Crigler, and to them were born two daughters.

Sources: "The Trail Drivers of Texas", published by Cokesburry Press, Nashville, Tennn., 1925, under the direction of George W. Saunders, President of the Old Time Trail Drivers' Association
il Drivers' Association