Lon Oden

Lon Oden (March 15, 1863 – August 10, 1910) was a Texas Ranger of the Old West, and is a legend inside the Texas Rangers organization.

He was born Alonzo Van Oden and called "Lon", in Tilden, Texas, in McMullen County. At the time, Tilden was called Dogtown, and previously it had been called Rio Frio, because it is located on the Frio River. It was later changed to the name Colfax, but eventually settled on the name of Tilden, after Samuel Tilden, a presidential candidate. Lon Oden was born into a family with an exciting past.

His father, Aaron Van Buren Oden, of Swedish descent, had served several times as a Texas Ranger before fathering Lon Oden. Four months after Lon Oden's birth, Aaron Oden, accompanied by rancher George Hindes, encountered Julian Gonzales, a noted horse thief from Starr County, Texas. They came into contact with him between the towns of Presidio and Los Ojuelos, on the Rio Grande. In the ensuing gunfight that followed, Aaron Oden killed Gonzales, but was himself shot and killed by Gonzales. Hindes, lacking proper tools, buried Aaron Oden where he died, then had the task of informing Aaron's 19-year-old wife, Mary Jane Walker Oden, of her husband's death. Mary Jane Oden was now left to raise their son with no father.

Lon Oden's grandfather, Mary Jane Oden's father, Joe Walker, had initially raised his family in Shelby County, Texas, but was forced to leave after he killed two men during the Regulator-Moderator War. They eventually settled in Atascosa County, where they became some of its earliest settlers. It was there that Mary Jane Walker married Aaron Van Oden. Mary Jane Oden, however, did not last long after her husband's death. She died on August 31, 1864, only a year after her husband. Her father Joe recorded in his journal that she died of a broken heart, out of grief.

...
Wikipedia