From fort to ranch: An interesting tale

Garland Richards grew up on the Chadbourne Ranch established north of here by his great-great-great grandfather in 1876. The ranch was originally called the O-D Ranch when Thomas L. Odom and his son, Garland G. Odom, purchased the land and moved 36,000 head of Longhorn cattle to the area. Fort Chadbourne, abandoned by the military in 1873, became the O-D headquarters. The fort buildings and parade grounds were under the ownership of Samuel and Mary Maverick, but the Odoms leased the buildings for barns. The fort was established Oct. 28, 1852, and named in honor of 2nd Lt. Theodore Lincoln Chadbourne, who was killed in the Mexican War Battle at Resaca de la Palma on May 9, 1846, at age 24. The Odoms finally purchased Fort Chadbourne from the Mavericks in 1877 for $500 in gold. The buildings were used by the ranch for milking sheds, feed and saddle storage until the 1970s. Thomas Odom was one of the first ranchers to introduce fences to West Texas. He built a 40-mile fence on the north of the ranch that stretched westward to Silver to keep cattle on the O-D Ranch for grazing. As cattle grazed from north to south during the seasons, another fence was built on the south end of the ranch...SanAngeloStandardTimes