2797 Pembroke Road

Melbourne, FL 32935-2436

November 29, 1996

Editor

THE OPP NEWS

Opp, Alabama 36467

Dear Editor:

This somewhat tardy letter is in response to your request for information about the cemetery highlighted in your Thursday, August 2, 1984, column--Abandoned cemetery reveals many facts. By Carole Brand. I believe that I can shed some light on this topic. I received a copy of this article a short while ago while I was researching my family genealogy. Earlier this month I was able to visit this cemetery. I must say it still appears abandoned and very rundown and the fence mentioned in the article is no more.

All the marked graves are members of one family group. The central figure is Isaac Wilson Odom. A little history about Mr. Odom and then I will show the family connections to the other marked graves. God only knows who else rests under these pine trees.

Mr. Odom was born in South Carolina circa 1804. His activities prior to his arrival in Alabama are at this time unknown. He evidently left South Carolina and moved down to Georgia as many others did as the new territories were opened to settlers. There he met and married his first wife Lucy Ann Blocker. They arrived in Dale County prior to 1837. There he also enlisted in Captain Ledbetter’s Company of Wellborn’s Alabama Mounted Militia. This unit served during the Second Seminole Indian War. He received a land grant for 20 acres in Coffee County, his horse, and his gun for his service to the state in this conflict. In Coffee county he served as Tax Collector and Probate Judge at the county seat in Elba. Mr. Odom traded this land for a team of oxen.

In 1854 he purchased 160 acres in the Antioch area of Covington County. The legal description is all of the NE quarter of section 29. This land is located within a mile of the cemetery. State records indicate that Mr. Odom raised Indian corn, pigs, milk cows and other livestock. He and Lucy also raised a good crop of children having a total of nine before 1860.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Mr. Odom was over 50 years old well above the maximum age for serving. But, advanced age did not stop his service to the state in this conflict. Two of his sons enlisted in Company ‘B’, 18th Regiment of the Alabama Volunteers that was formed in Andalusia in July of 1861. This unit was known as the ‘Covington Hunters’. One son, George W., was to become a causality of the war. Later on in the war when the tide had turned against the South, President Davis issued a call for all able bodied men between 16 and 60 years of age. Mr. Odom and 80 other members of the county that were too old or too young or too disabled to serve in the regular units answered the call. They were formed into Home Guard units. On August 27, 1864, from Beat Nos. 1, 3, 7, 8, 9, and 10; Company ‘A‘ of the Covington County Reserves (First Class) was formed. The muster roll of this unit indicates that Mr. Odom had no gun. To me, this shows the tremendous sacrifices he had made to keep his family going through the long war years.

Lucy A. Odom died sometime in the 1860’s as she was not recorded in the 1870 census. Her headstone is broken through the year.

Mr. Odom took a second wife that had been widowed and left with two young children by the war. Martha English Brooks was her name. Together they were to have six children in addition to the two she brought into the marriage. One, Adeline Odom, died quite young and is believed to be one of the unmarked small graves.

All records indicate that Mr. Odom lived the remainder of his life in the Antioch area.

The other marked graves in this cemetery are:

A grandson- G. W. Harrelson son of daughter Mary Jane Odom Harrelson

A son in law- G. J. Worley husband of oldest daughter Nancy L. Odom Worley

A daughter- M(ary) J(ane) Odom Harrelson

Another grandson- Levi Athern Odom son of B(enjamin) F(ranklin) Odom

If you find this information satisfactory for a follow up article, you have my permission to use any or all of it. I just ask to be sent a copy and to receive a copy of any information you might get from other readers. I have lots of additional information about this family if any of your readers are interested.

By the way, I am one of Mr. Odom’s great grandchildren.

Sincerely,