The graves of one of Odell's founding families, the LaGorgue's (alternately spelled LaGorgue), can be found in the North section of the Odell Nebraska Cemetery:
Elizabeth LaGourge, born on July 14, 1832, and died on Mar. 14, 1920 Lot 10 Martha E. LaGourge, whose dates on her stone read 1873 - 1899 Lot 37 William V. LaGourge born Oct. 15, 1822 and died Oct. 10, 1902 Lot 10 Mattie LaGourge, born Mar. 8, 1870 and died Feb. 4, 1917 Lot 147 Their story goes this way: The United States government offered land for sale at the end of 1873 or in 1874, land which had belonged to the Otoe Indians and for which the railroad had already purchased the right of way. One of those who bought some of the land from the sale of half of the reservation was William B. LaGorgue, who according to Hugh J. Dobbs in his History of Gage County (Western Publishing and Engraving Company,Lincoln, Nebraska, 1918) "surveyed and platted a townsite on his farm on the south side of Big Indian Creek, a mile or so from what is now Odell, and he christened it Charleston. A start had been made toward establishing a town there when, in 1880, the railroad was surveyed north of the creek and the village of Odell was founded." (p. 284) William LaGorgue came to Gage County from Sac City, Iowa, about the year 1873. The obituary of his son, William V. LaGorgue (Born on June 8, 1869) states that as a boy of about 5 he moved with his parents to Sicily Creek and later they moved further south of what is now Odell where they founded the town of Charleston. LaGorgue planned optimistically for Charleston, laying out plots for a number of blocks in the village, but actually only two or three ever held buildings. Charleston did have a post office, located in the LaGorgue home. The mail was carried to Charleston in a cigar box by a rider on horseback from Blue Springs, and there is evidence that Belle LaGorgue was her father's assistant in the post office. Charleston also boasted a livery stable, a saw mill, a grocery store - run by Mike Tricka, drug store, an implement business, a church, the Prebyl saloon, a broom factory, and a school, probably also held in the LaGorgue home, to serve the 20 families who settled there.
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