Surname Saturday The Odle's and O'Dell's of Scioto County, Ohio

During the past week, I haven't written too many posts on my blog because I have spent just about every free moment I have had researching on my newly found resource of newspaperarchive.com.  Luckily for me, two of the newspaper they have available cover areas of the country where my husband had family living during the periods of time the source covers.  Last week, I shared both the story of my husband's great great uncle, August Hellmund and the account of the tragic drowning of  his great uncle Clyde O'Dell and his wife, Lillian.  In the past, I have told of some "offbeat" finds I have made such as some "moonshining" arrests and to my great delight, I have uncovered newspaper accounts of family weddings.  Yesterday, I was enjoying the search for "Odles" and "O'Dells" in the new database,  copying and saving articles in my history folders and updating my family tree with any newly found names and dates, when I came upon something new that shocked and saddened me.   It was an article published 4 April, 1937 in The Portsmouth Times.  The headline read, "BULLETS KILL MAN, WOUND MOTHER OF 8".  The article went on to describe how James Odle, in an apparent "jealous craze" had shot and wounded the wife of his cousin, John Odle.  He had been staying with his cousin,  John and his family and had  been very difficult to deal with.  Bessie, John's wife, had apparently had enough of  James living with them and she told him to move out of the house. James became angry, retrieved a gun and shot  Bessie.  Her son, William, had come to his mother's aid and stepped between her and the man attempting to kill her.  After shooting Bessie, James had put the gun to his head and killed himself.  Bessie had actually walked herself to the ambulance, but was now in serious condition with a gunshot wound to the abdomen.  What a terrible story.
I immediately wanted to see just how these individuals fit into my husband's family tree.  The first thing I did was open to my family tree files to look up James, but there are many James Odle's in the family and not knowing any more information than what I had, it was a little difficult to match exactly whose "James" he was.  My next step was the Ohio Death Certificates database at familysearch.org to see if I could connect him to his parents by looking at his death certificate.  Unfortunately, his record wasn't there, but my eyes fell upon the name of someone else.  It was Bessie O'Dell.  According to her death certificate, Bessie died two weeks after she was shot, on 18 April, 1937.  The cause of death was listed as endocarditis, contributory cause was a gunshot wound to the abdomen.   I felt an overwhelming feeling of sadness.  I had just "met" this incredibly strong woman who had walked from the scene of her attempted murder to the waiting ambulance, and now she was gone.  She was taken away from her husband and her eight children by a man who was angry that she didn't like his influence upon her household.   I knew there was now more to be told of this story.  I searched the archive database once more, concentrating specifically on her name and I  discovered another article.

At the time of this article, Bessie's condition seemed to be improving, but unfortunately, I knew now that it wasn't to be.

The next two articles I found were obituaries; both Bessie's and James'. 

My final steps in documenting this tragedy were to input the information that I had found into both my Ancestry.com family tree and my personal family tree database.  After that, I could tell my husband that the wife of his grandmother's first cousin, therefore, his first cousin, once removed, was shot and killed by the man, James Odle, his second cousin, twice removed. 

 We all have items that live in our family trees that don't make us proud, but they are still important components to who we are.   Now that I know Bessie, I won't forget her and I think that is what family history is all about.

New Discovery! Moonshiners in the Family

For many years, I have heard stories about the family of my husband's grandmother, Carrie Retsel O'Dell (Odle) Zimmerman. She was born in Turkey Creek, Scioto County, Ohio, on the banks of the Ohio River. We made a trip down there a couple of years ago, and even today, it still has quite a bit of wild country. Much of the land where she grew up is now contained within the confines of the Shawnee State Forest and Resort. She came from a large family and she was one of only two daughters. Her extended family was also quite large and I have been told that they had plenty of time and space to get into various kinds of trouble.
Today, I confirmed at least one of these stories. Luther and Charles Odle, both cousins of Carrie, were arrested for moonshining on January 24, 1921.
This story appeared in the Portsmouth Daily Times later that day:

Portsmouth Daily Times – January 24, 1921

Sheriff Swoops Down on Still – Four Moonshiners Caught

Two Make Getaway But Officers Say They Were Identified; Plant is Seized

Four men, giving their names as Thurman Thompson, Charles Odle, Charles Clifford, and Harry Beckman were arrested, and two others, said by officers to be Luther Odle and his son, Dallas, Odle, aged 17 years, escaped early Monday morning when Sheriff E.E. Rickey and a squad of officers swooped down on a moonshine liquor plant by a hollow on the Labold land in the wilds of Turkey Creek, West Side.

The raid also resulted in the capture of an immense copper still of 90 gallons capacity, in addition to more than 600 gallons of mash and about six gallons of high proof distilled liquor. The mash was destroyed and the still and liquor were seized, together with a Buick touring car belonging to Luther Odle and brought to the city along with the quartet of prisoners, who were landed in the county jail where they are held to meet charges of unlawfully manufacturing intoxicating liquor.

The still was in operation and the six men were huddled around a fire in the furnace under the cooker when the officers arrived on the scene about two o’clock and took the whiskey makers by surprise. When Sheriff Rickey suddenly slid down a hillside landing right in the midst of the distillers, there was a wild scramble of members of the gang to escape, but officers had been stationed at various points in an effort to cut off all avenue of escape and four of the men were caught.

When searched it developed none of the prisoners were armed except Charles Odle, on whose person a .38 caliber revolver, fully loaded, was found, but in a search of the premises a rifle and a discarded pistol holster were discovered.

From information received by the sheriff, the still had been in operation but a short time, as he visited the place only a few days ago and from all indications then it had been used little, if any, at that time. No one was about at the time and the officer did not disturb the outfit but waited for a more opportune time, which came this morning. It is by far the most complete outfit for the making of liquor which has been taken by local officers since the prohibition law went into effect. The still was equipped with a 30 foot copper coil and a perfect cooling system, fed from a small stream of water.

Thompson, Charles, and Luther Odle are the reputed owners of the still. Clifford and Beckman, who are Dry Run young men, claiming they have no interest in the outfit and just chanced to accompany the others to the camp Sunday night.

Besides Sheriff Rickey and Deputy Harry Dunham, railroad detectives Lee Einspander, Andy Leslie, Robert Reno, and Ehner Pratt participated in the raid.

Tomorrow: The trial of Luther and Charles Odle