sarah jane odell McTeer

Early Life and Family Background

Sarah Jane Odell was born on December 10, 1828, in Carroll County, Indiana. She was the fourth child of John and Sarah Odell, early settlers who later founded the Odell Pioneer Cemetery and Ebenezer Chapel. At age twenty-two, Sarah made the overland journey from Indiana to Oregon with her family.

Marriage to Robert M. McTeer

Sarah married Robert M. McTeer, a pioneer of 1852, on September 20, 1853. The ceremony took place at the home of her father, John Odell, and was officiated by Reverend Nehemiah Doane, a well-known Methodist minister and Oregon pioneer (Oregon Historical Society, n.d.-b). Doane later served congregations across the Northwest and taught theology at both Willamette University and Portland University (Harmon, 1974, pp. 696–697).

Robert was originally from Tennessee but had lived in Carroll County before emigrating west. It is unknown whether he and Sarah were acquainted prior to their separate crossings of the plains.

Family Life in Dayton

After their marriage, Sarah and Robert established a farm near Dayton, Oregon. They had four children:

• Sarah (born 1854)
• Ella (born 1859, died 1861)
• Mary Lulu (born 1862, died 1872)
• Harry (born 1864, died 1888)

Both Ella and Mary Lulu died at young ages, with Ella passing away ten months before Mary Lulu was born. Before the advent of widespread vaccination against now-preventable diseases, the death of young children was, unfortunately, a common tragedy among pioneer families.

Relocation to Klamath County and Robert’s Death

In 1877, Robert was appointed miller at the Klamath Indian Agency, prompting the family to move to Linkville (now Klamath Falls) with their youngest surviving child, Harry (Oregonian, 1877).

Tragedy struck in 1879. While on a scouting trip to inspect a potential farm purchase near Butte Creek, Robert and a friend stopped to spend the night in a barn. As Robert prepared sleeping arrangements in the hayloft, he fell and sustained fatal injuries (Ashland Tidings, 1879).

Return to Yamhill County

Following Robert’s sudden death, Sarah and Harry returned to the Dayton area. Sarah lived with her eldest daughter, Sarah Willmina, and her family, listing her occupation as “housekeeper.” Harry later died in 1888 at age twenty-three from consumption (now known as tuberculosis).

By 1900, Sarah was living with her brother, Dr. George W. Odell, in the Baker Creek Precinct on the outskirts of McMinnville.

Final Years and Death

Sarah spent her final years at the northeast Portland home of her daughter, Sarah Willmina McTeer Baker. Although the exact address is difficult to determine due to Portland’s 1930s street renumbering, it would have been located between NE 50th and 52nd Avenues near Davis Street, a few blocks north of Burnside Street.

After a twelve-day illness with bronchial pneumonia, Sarah died on November 18, 1908, at age seventy-nine. Her brother George served as the attending physician. She was buried at the Odell Pioneer Cemetery on November 20, 1908 (Oregon State Archives, 1908). The exact location of her grave is unknown as her headstone is missing and is presumably stolen.

Mystery of the McTeer Burials

The burial locations of the McTeer family within the Odell Pioneer Cemetery remain unclear. Harry’s grave, before its headstone was broken, sits directly behind Abram and Martha Coovert—isolated from other burials, suggesting a possible, intentional family grouping. Mary Lulu’s partially buried headstone lies among members of the Peery family, raising the possibility that the stone may have been displaced from its original base.

The burial sites of Ella and Sarah herself are unknown. While scattered family burials are not unusual in pioneer cemeteries, the separation of the McTeer graves is notably inconsistent with the pattern found among other families interred there.

Robert’s burial place is also uncertain. Contemporary newspapers report that the Ashland Lodge of Free Masons arranged his funeral, but no record of his interment has been located.

Obituary