Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Page 976

CLARENCE L. ODELL, a gentleman in the prime of life, is carrying on agriculture successfully on section 31, in Illinois Township, to which he came from across the Mississippi in the spring of 1885. His childhood's home was in Coles County, Ill., where his birth took place June 6, 1841. His parents were Phillip and Mary Jane (Yokum) Odell, the former a native of Tennessee, where he was born in 1815, and departed this life at his home in Charleston, in November, 1841. He was a tailor by trade, and a Whig, politically. His wife, Mary J., was born near Bardstown, Ky., Sept. 13, 1819, and is now living in Coles County, Ill. The following stanzas we clip from an obituary notice of Mr. Odell, which appeared in the Charleston paper at the time of his death:

Could I the sacred nine command,

And inspiration guide my hand,

In numbers sweet but sad I'd tell

The virtues of our friend Odell.

 With sensibility refined,

A generous heart and upright mind;

Formed on heaven's grandest plan,

He lived and died an honest man.

 No marble monument may rise,

To point out friendship, where he lies,

Yet in our hearts will ever dwell

The treasured mem'ry of Odell.

 And when full many a year is gone,

Perchance we wander near his tomb,

We'll pause and pay the tribute dear,

And to his memory drop a tear.

 A tear at least to him we owe,

We lov'd and cherish'd here below,

Mine have I paid, so fare-thee-well,

My dear departed friend Odell.

             To Phillip and Mary Odell there was born one child only, Clarence L., the subject of this sketch. After the death of his father the mother was married the second time, to Joshua Acres, of Coles County, and this union resulted in the birth of another son, Thornton, who married Miss Dora Horsley, and is the father of four children, one of whom died in infancy; he is carrying on farming in Coles County, Ill. Clarence L. remained with his mother until reaching his majority, and was married in his native county to Miss Agnes C. Berry; they are now the parents of nine children. The eldest daughter, Ella G., was born Feb. 16, 1864, and is now the wife of Seth E. Jones, a native of Illinois, and now carrying on farming in this county; Joshua was born May 18, 1867, and died Sept. 16, 1869; William P. was born Feb. 25, 1870, and with the younger children remains at home with his parents; Mary A. was born July 19, 1872; Lilla A., Aug. 18, 1874; Gertrude, March 14, 1876; James C., March 22, 1878; Arthur, June 4, 1880; Jessie, Jan. 6, 1883, and Clara, June 14, 1886.

            Mr. Odell owns 160 acres of good land, the greater part of which is in a high state of cultivation, and the balance devoted to pasture and hay. Although mixing very little in public affairs, he is numbered among the useful and enterprising men of Illinois Township, is a reliable Republican, politically, and coincides with the doctrines of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which his estimable wife is a devoted member.

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