The Mysterious Death of John Odiorne

The research never ends. Just when you think you are at the end of the paper trail, something new surfaces. Take the case of photographer John Odiorne who died at the young age of 25 shortly after separating from his wife. Something does not add up with his cause of death. John didn’t realize the extent of his wife’s theatrical ambitions and was surprised when she left him for the stage and a new lover. It was reported that he died of inflammatory rheumatism October 24, 1866. He seems awfully young to die of such a debilitating disease. It is not something that comes on suddenly.

Then I found a box score for the third nine of the Brandywine Baseball Club published in West Chester’s Village Record newspaper from July 21, 1866 in which John Odiorne played second base. According to the scores Odiorne played brilliantly, catching two fly balls (ouch! No gloves) and making five runs. The Brandywines defeated the Columbia Club in that match. He did this in July and was dead by October? It does not add up. I have always suspected that John Odiorne may have committed suicide. In that day, such things were not talked about or reported in the newspaper.

A telling comment was made in the entry for John Odiorne in The Genealogy of the Odiorne Family by James Creighton Odiorne published in 1875. “He married, August 11, 1861, …. His choice was unfortunate, and the union unhappy. His anxieties on her account, operating upon his mild and sensitive nature, hastened his death.” This sentence adds to my suspicions.

But then, John Odiorne’s brother is an enigma too. All three Odiorne brothers (David, Henry & John) worked as photographers in Philadelphia before the Civil War. According to David’s obituary, he came to West Chester and ran a studio. His obituary from the Daily Village Record May 25, 1889 reads as follows: “At the close of the war he opened the photograph gallery over the Adams Express office in West Chester, which he afterwards sold to J. S. Beecher and went to Philadelphia and from thence, apparently went to Elizabeth, and in business in New York.” Thereafter David Odiorne became a successful umbrella manufacturer in New York, which is what he was doing when John Odiorne’s estate was settled by the court. This obituary has a lot of detail, giving it the ring of truth.

But I cannot find any other sources to prove that he actually was there. It is logical to think that perhaps he came to his brother’s aid to assist with the faltering studio after his military service. The location described above the Adams Express office would have been on the south east corner of Market and High Streets, the same building as John Odiorne’s studio was in. But had the obituary writer actually mixed in some of John Odiorne’s information with David’s? Clearly another source is needed to confirm it. Until I find it to be sure, I can’t add it to the photographer’s working dates list.

The intrigue of the Odiorne family goes on!