Homer Robert Henderson
Odessa, Ector County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Texas Ranger; deputy sheriff; county commissioner in Ector and (later) in Crane County. Born in Wilson County; one of 12 children of Robert and Mary Elizabeth (O'Neal) Henderson. Came to Odessa as member of company a, Texas Rangers, under command of Capt. J. A. Brooks, in 1906. This was in period when Rangers kept the peace during citizen's filing of land claims. Married Annie Henderson here, October 8, 1908. Ranched in area.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Homer Robert Henderson rode into Odessa in 1906 as a member of Company A of the Texas Rangers, serving under the famed Captain J. A. Brooks in the years when Rangers kept order as settlers rushed to file claims on West Texas land. One of twelve children born in Wilson County, he married Annie Henderson in Odessa in 1908 and turned to ranching, later serving as deputy sheriff and county commissioner in both Ector and Crane counties. His life traces the transition of the Permian Basin from open frontier to settled, governed country.
Why it matters
Henderson embodies the frontier lawman who bridged the Ranger era and civic office, holding the peace as West Texas filled with homesteaders in the early twentieth century.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Homer Robert Henderson
- · J. A. Brooks
- · Annie Henderson
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Comanche War Trail
Odessa, TX
In the 18th century the Comanches swept onto the southern plains, driving the Wichitas eastward and the Apaches west to become the dominant power of the region. From this heartland they raided across a vast frontier — from Corpus Christi and the Red River deep into Mexico — and the many routes of their raids converged into the great Comanche War Trail, which passed some 20 miles southeast of this marker. It was a corridor of both commerce and conflict for generations.
Ector County
Odessa, TX
Ector County was created in 1887 and organized in 1891, carved from Tom Green County on the West Texas plains with Odessa as its seat. It honors Matthew Duncan Ector (1822–1879), a Texas legislator, Confederate officer, and respected jurist. The marker records the administrative birth of a county that would later boom with the discovery of Permian Basin oil.
Emmet V. Headlee, M.D.
Odessa, TX
Emmet V. Headlee was a fourth-generation physician who, at thirteen, earned a Carnegie Hero Fund stipend for saving a friend from drowning — money that helped pay for college. After medical school he and his wife Marie, a nurse-anesthetist, arrived in Odessa in 1926, when he became the only doctor in a town of about 450 people, operating from rooms in their home and a back office of a drugstore. During the Depression he accepted livestock in lieu of cash, opened a seven-bed hospital in 1934, and helped make Odessa a major West Texas medical center before his death in 1965.
Old Buffalo Wallow
Odessa, TX
This shallow depression is a surviving buffalo wallow, worn into the West Texas ground over untold years by bison rolling in the dirt to shed winter coats and drive off insects. Great herds once migrated across these plains between Canada and Mexico, sustaining the Plains Indians who followed them for food, clothing, and shelter. In the 1870s the herds were slaughtered en masse—encouraged by the army, settlers, and hide hunters—and had all but vanished by the time Odessa was founded in 1886.