Have you ever wondered where the name Odessa came from? Well, now you don't have to. We have put together a history page for cities, towns and villages that include Odessa in their name. Whether you are curious about Odessa, Texas, Odessa Florida, Odessa, Ukraine, or... they are all there at History.OdessaPage.Com

I thought it came from Slowdeatha

Odessa ... That is a neat story about how Odessa, TX caught the eyes of eastern investors to found the town in the mid 1880s ... but at the risk of taking a bit of romance out of the naming of the T&P railroad siding that became the name of the future city, I am proposing the name Odessa was dreamed up by a railroad clerk instead of the investors.

The Texas and Pacific Railroad was chartered by the Federal government in 1871 to build a rail line from Marshall, TX to San Diego, CA. Recall that in 1871 that part of Texas west of present-day I-35 was frontier, very sparsely inhabited by settlers, open to attacks by Commanche, Kiowa, and Apache indians. There were few named settlements in entire west Texas.

The T&P was responsible for surveying the roadway for the railroad, and the counties the railroad traversed. After the route was laid out, the railroad company as a way of keeping track of its building progress plotted locations of sidings every 5-10 miles along the route and gave that siding a name for identification. Since we are talking about 150 or more sidings to be named, some poor T&P clerk had his hands full coming up with a list of names to be used ... lists of names came from a variety of sources available at the time.

Available at website www.mapsoftexas.com are a couple of maps of Texas for that period. An 1875 map entitled Pocket Map of Texas shows the proposed route of the T&P and an 1885 map entitled Railroad and County Map of Texas shows the final route with the names of all the sidings. (The Pocket Map could be folded and placed in the pocket and was used by the early settlers of west Texas to navigate across the barren land ... it showed the location of landmarks and waterholes.)

In west Texas, as the railroad was built, settlements located in the vicinity of a siding moved to the siding and in most cases adopted the name of the siding as its town name. Looking at the 1885 Railroad map you will recognize the names of present-day towns and cities that grew from those sidings.

(Oh, the T&P never reached San Diego. It was supposed to meet the Southern Pacific at El Paso but because of delays the two tracks met at Sierra Blanca.)

I could not find the maps that you are refering to. Perhaps an exact link to both the 1875 and 1885 maps would help. If the map from 1875 indeed has Odessa on it, it would be proof that your version of the story is closer to the way the naming came about.

I know the two maps described are included in the Texas Collectible Set at the link cited above. There are 20 or so Texas maps in the set and the cost is about $55. That set and other items listed at the site can be ordered on line.

Early settlers and Odessa residents to this day have been heard to moan, "O dis a terr'ba place t' live."

<rim shot>

Thanks, I'll be here all week.



Actually, I read that it was so named for real, hoped for or imagined similarities to Odessa in the Russian Ukraine.

And Midland is midway between Fort Worth and El Paso on the railroad route.

Gig 'em, FAST FRED '65.

Before the world wide web, village idiots usually stayed in their own village.

I was born there.

I was born in Holy Angels or better know as San Angelo