MYSTERY MAN: Billy Odell

We know he joined the Union Army when he was underaged; he used an alias: Thomas J. Reilly. We know he was mustered out of the Army in Louisiana, and he traveled around Texas for several  years before ending up in the Texas Valley.  By that time, he was 36 yrs old.  He married a local  girl Josephine Johnston, 13 years old, from Hidalgo.  Despite her name, she was a Mexicana girl -  her parents were George Johnston and Placida Cantu Villarreal. George was half Mexican as his  mother was Maria Jesusa Estefana Cantu from Mexico.
    Billy and Josephine lived in San Antonio and later in Hidalgo and became owners of a store  which also housed the local 
 post office.  Billy and Josephine served as postmasters for a number of years.  By the time  Josephine was 20, she'd had 7 children, but only 5 lived through early childhood.    Josephine had a nervous breakdown around 1890 and was sent to the state asylum.  It was  probably no more than post partum depression, but nevertheless, the kids were told she had died.    About that time, Billy became ill himself and had to be taken in by Josephine'sister Virginia  Johnston snd her husband Richard Alvis Marsh in El Desierto TX, who were beginning a family of  their own....  The Odell children were farmed out to other relatives in the area. Billy died in Feb 1896, leaving 5 children: Willie, George, Jim, Margaret, and Ida.

Billy's brother in law, Richard Avis Marsh, petitioned the gov't for a pension to take care of  the minor 
 children.  Billy's birth year was estimated as 1845... The children grew up thinking they were  orphans.  
    George and Jim both joined the service as soon as they were able to.  George chose the Army,  and Jim chose the Navy.  Margaret lived with a family as a nanny - taking care of their children. Ida, the baby, was sent to a Masonic Orphanage in Waco to get her education.    Margaret went to live with her brother George when he was stationed in the Phillippines, met  and married an Army man, 
 George Williams.

Their oldest child Marjorie was born there, and the younger one Muriel was born in Brownsville, TX.  Margaret developed TB and spent some time in a sanitarium.  When she was released, her  husband George took her and the two children to Chicago, and they disappeared from the family's  view.  
    George Odell was eventually stationed at Fort Mabry in Austin TX.  He married a German woman,  Emily Martin, and had 1 child:Peggy, in 1931.  Jim married a Polish woman, Julia Wonsky, in  Houston, and they had 2 children: Margaret and Jimmie. Jim and Julia divorced when their children  were young; Julia did not encurage visitation, so Jim was estranged from his children.  He  remarried, but had no children.  Ida (aka Aida) graduated from the orphanage and went back to  the valley to be a secretary.She also tutored Anglo businessmen in Spanish for some extra money.   She met and married a civil engineer from Central Texas, Elliott Anderson, in 1909.  They had 7  children: Margaret, Pete, Bettie, Mary, Virginia, Katherine, and Andrew - between 1910 and 1932. This site is dedicated to the Descendants of Billy Odell - which would include all my first and  second cousins and their children and grandchildren.





We don't know what became of Marjorie Odell Williams.  the last her family was heard from was  in 1923.
   Emily Martin died in 1943, and her husband George Odell died in 1944.  Their daughter Peggy  was 13 years old and was sent to her uncle Jim's to live with him and his 2nd wife Lee.  Peggy  rran away in her teens;  she married and had 3 sons: Royce, Carl, and Bruce Bordman.    Of Jim's 2 children, Margaret married but had no children.  Jimmie married and had 4 children: Marie, Jay, Dan, & Mike.  Jimmie died when the children were young;  they were raised by their  mother Marguerite.  Ida (who went by Odell) and Elliott's 7 children all grew up in Brownsville; there is only one left at this time (Oct 2014):  Katherine, age 87.  All 7  married and had children, so of that generation, we know of Jimmy O'Dell's 4 children and the  Anderson children's 17 children.
    This site is for the 21 children and their descendants.  The descendants of Billy Odell... he had at least 12 grandchildren, but 1 disappeared, Marjorie.  her little sister Muriel died  before she was a teenager. So I have invited the descendants of the  other 10 to this site for genealogy, stories, pictures, and family news.      I am the only one who can post on this site, but if you see any information that needs to be  corrected or added to, please let me know, and I will fix it as quickly as possible.