This Week in Odessa History

It was the week between Christmas and New Year’s in 1913, and farmers southwest of Odessa in the Batum area were apprehensive about the sausage thieves, who were raiding their smoke houses.

Most farmers were in the habit of making sausage after butchering pork during the winter months. One hundred years ago, an era before refrigeration, the sausage was hung out to cure and was smoked and various cuts of pork were put up in jars for use during the following year.

Reports coming in from Batum and Moody indicate there are a bunch of pork thieves at work in those neighborhoods, and they have been...