Odessa named after large Ukrainian port city

The Odessa Post Office

 

November 4, 2021

Fading and forlorn, the Odessa Episcopal Methodist Church is a reminder of the "flourishing" 1880's community of Odessa. Located on the western edge of Jewell County, the community had a post office, two daily stages, the church and a school. 

The Odessa Post Office, the "flourishing" community of Odessa, Odessa Township, Odessa School District No. 130, the Odessa Cemetery and the Odessa Methodist Episcopal Church were all named after Odessa, Russia, the large Ukrainian port city on the Black Sea.

That Odessa still exists. The Jewell County namesakes are not so fortunate. Today the township and the fading and forlorn church building with the cemetery on K Road are all that remain.

Where exactly was the Odessa Post Office and the community of Odessa? The 1880 Kansas State Gazetteer states it was a "recently established post office in Ionia Township." The "recently established" is correct but Ionia Township should be Odessa Township.

The Gazetteer goes on to name four carpenters, two stonemasons, one shoe and boot maker, one plasterer and one blacksmith in Odessa. Additionally, there was a school, Odessa District No. 130, and the Methodist Episcopal Church.

According to Shute and Dillion's Prairie Jewels, the post office was in Section 5 of Odessa Township. This agrees with Bruntzel's Quick Reference to Kansas, which also locates Odessa in Section 5. The 1884 Jewell County Plat Book shows the church in Section 7 with the cemetery in Section 18 of Odessa Township, which is where they are today. The school was on the west side of Section 8, on the half-mile line. These locations are around L and K Roads and 20 and 30 Roads on the western side of Jewell County.

Mary Frany Romig Thatcher was the first of the four Odessa postmasters. She served from the office's establishment on July 29, 1878, until Aug. 24, 1880. She had married Civil War veteran, John W. Thatcher on March 20, 1873, in Guthrie, Iowa.

The couple's homestead was in Section 6 of Odessa Township – the W 1⁄2 of the SW 1⁄4 and the E 1⁄2 of the SE 1/4th. (Along L Road, between 10 and 20 Roads.) It seems most likely, at least for her appointment as postmaster, the post office was there. The 1880 Gazetteer notes J. W. Thatcher was a farmer but he also ran a stable and took care of the stage lines. Odessa had two daily stages, one ran south to Cawker City and one ran north to Red Cloud.

John W. Thatcher is mentioned in both Jewell County and Mitchell County newspapers – his wife, not at all. An interesting item in the Dec. 10, 1884, Jewell County Monitor links him to the Omio Coal Mine. Another item in the Dec. 2, 1882, Jewell County Monitor describes him as having a well auger "second to none" in Jewell County.

The Sept. 18, 1884, Cawker City Record described him as the "boss well driller." He advertised in the Dec. 2, 1886, Cawker City Record he was prepared to do "well drilling and prospecting for coal" being "fully equipped with a steam drill."

Be that as it may, the Feb. 23, 1887, Jewell County Monitor announced that Mr. McCleery "purchased the John Thatcher place." The couple, and their seven children, are then found in censuses in the Stillwater, Okla., area.

The second of the four Odessa postmasters was V. L. Merrill. His name appeared in the 1880 Kansas State Gazetteer as being a carpenter at Odessa. He became the postmaster on Aug. 24, 1880, and served until June 15, 1885, basically half of the time the post office was in existence.

The Merrill homestead was in the NW 1⁄4 of Section 5 Odessa Township, just a half-mile or so from the Thatcher homestead. This was likely the location of the post office while he was the postmaster and agrees with two previously named resources.

Like John Thatcher, Merrill was also a Civil War veteran having served in Company E of the 3rd Wisconsin Infantry. Thatcher prospected for oil and coal but Merrill was a "genius" tinsmith who could "make anything from a clock to a steam engine." He worked for Russell and Co. in Salem, Kansas. That information from the June 21, 1888, Jewell County Review.

Merrill was born in New York, as was his wife, Ann Eliza Austin. They married in Wisconsin in 1852 and were in Jewell County by 1880. They had three children. Like the Thatchers, the Merrill's moved on to Oklahoma, settling there by 1900.

The third Odessa postmaster was Charles R. Mallory. He was postmaster only a short time, from June 15, 1885, until Dec. 9, 1885. His homestead was in Section 32 of Esbon Township, just north of the homesteads of Thatcher and Merrill. He had been born in Illinois in 1852 and arrived with his parents in Jewell County in 1873. In 1882, in Jewell County, he married Addie M. Topliff. They had five children.

Unlike Thatcher and Merrill, Mallory was a business man. Even before his appointment as postmaster, Mallory was, according to the Salem Argus of March 17, 1885, "Odessa's popular merchant." A few months before, Dec. 3, 1884, the Jewell County Monitor reported Mallory "ordered over $500 worth of drugs" and was planning to "fill one side of the store" with drugs and patent medicines.

After his scant six months as postmaster, Mallory was involved in a variety of business ventures, The Mallory House in Salem, the Salem Meat Market, as well as the egg and poultry business. Then he, like Thatcher and Merrill, moved to Oklahoma. Unlike those two couples, the Mallorys moved again to Bucklin, Ford County, Kansas before moving back to Illinois.

The fourth and final Odessa postmaster was Francis M. Hamaker. He was postmaster from Dec. 9, 1885, until the post office was disorganized on Nov. 10, 1888. Another Civil War veteran, originally from Ohio, it seems he served with the 3rd Missouri Provisional Regiment.

Hamaker married Nancy Jane Honnold on Nov. 14, 1864, in Wayne, Iowa. The Hamaker homestead was in Smith County in Section 1 of Oak Township. This is on the Smith-Jewell County line on M Road and just a half-mile or so from the homesteads of Thatcher and Merrill. The Hamaker family is found in Smith County, not Jewell County, censuses.

The May 5, 1887, Jewell County Review, calls Hamaker the "Merchant Post Master" of Odessa. The item also quotes him as saying Odessa was "flourishing." His store, according to the March 3, 1887, Burr Oak Herald, was called the "Odessa Variety Store" and he a "genial and popular" merchant.

Hamaker bought the store from Charles R. Mallory, the previous postmaster. Various items tell us he was from Red Cloud when he bought it (Sept. 16, 1885, Jewell County Monitor) and by Jan, 26, 1886, the Salem Argus called him a "wide-awake merchant" with a "good trade."

Nancy and Francis Hamaker did not leave the area. They remained in Smith County where Nancy died on Nov. 8, 1914, and Francis on Oct. 26, 1925. They are buried in the North Oak Creek Cemetery near Lebanon.

Shirley Marihugh, long associated with the Odessa area, has no recollection of stories about the Odessa Variety Store or a town of Odessa. She does recall hearing information about Dentonia, a store and dances! That will be another story for another day.

 

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