This old board-and-batten shed on 1st, behind Western Drug, is something many of yall will recognize. But I dont think the backstory is widely known. It and the house in front of it were owned by Juan Ramires (misspelled Ramirez at the park named for him). He was a foreman on the T&P Railroad and was probably one of the first people from Mexico to permanently settle in Odessa. According to his daughter Frances Jordan, who I was able to visit several times before her death in 09, said that he ended up here somewhat accidentally in 1907. He was supposed to go on to El Paso, but got off the train too early. He came from a well-to-do family from Aguascalientes state, I believe, and the start of the Mexican Revolution a few years later helped him decide to never leave. Frances was the first Mexican-American graduate of OHS. Class of 32, if Im correct. She would proudly show me her yearbook each time I saw her, always recalling how accepting her classmates and most of the other families were in Odessa then. Her older brother, Saturnino Ramires, who change his name to something like Sam Ramsey, went into rodeo at an early age instead of going through HS. This is backed up by the 1930 census, which lists rodeo as his profession. As to what looks like a chicken coop; Frances explained that it was actually a sort of bunkhouse, like a hostel, in which oilfield and other workers slept on cots for an allotted 8 hours. Juan built it while his wife and the kids were on vacation in California, against the wifes wishes. But it ended up being an important source of income during the Depression. There is still a mailbox tacked to it to prove that it was once a residence at one time.
Posted on: Wed, 10 Sep 2014 21:23:28 +0000
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