Odell History - Livingston County Illinois Genealogy & History

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Odell History
Livingston County, Illinois
(Transcribed by: Teri Moncelle Colglazier)

Situated on that leading Illinois highway, US 66, the incorporated village of Odell, just northeast of Pontiac, today has a population of 908.
In addition to numerous retail stores and service establishments, the village has banking facilities and a postoffice. Through it runs the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Railroad.
Odell was laid out on the Chicago & Mississippi Railroad in 1855 by William E. Odell, Henry A. Gardner and S. S. Morgan. The first hotel in Odell was built by A. A. Streator.
Today, Odell is the principal communityof Odell Township, which has a total population of 1,375.
First settlers of the township were a handful of employees of the Chicago & Mississippi Railroad who built shacks at the new Odell station and who attended not only to the station but to a water tank and to road maintenance. One of these, Daniel Smith, became first station agent as well as first postmaster of Odell village.
[This is Livingston County, Illinois by: John Drury, The Loree Co., Chicago, Illinois (1955)]

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