William Harrison Odell. A thoroughness and accuracy of judgment, a solidity of logic, a brilliancy and quickness of deduction, and a mature grasp of the letter of the law–these have been some of the qualities which have aided William Harrison Odell to a position among the leading lawyers of Creek County. Coming to Sapulpa in 1910, he almost immediately attracted to himself a practice of more than ordinary desirability and importance, and from that time to the present, when he is senior member of the firm of Odell & Wright, his advance has been steady and consistent.

Mr. Odell is a member of families which originated in Ireland and Scotland and which settled in South Carolina during Colonial days. His grandfather, John H. Odell, was born in Georgia, and in addition to carrying on agricultural pursuits was occupied as an educator and for some time was in charge of a high school in Chattooga County, Georgia, where he died when still in middle life. His son, Charles M. Odell, the father of William Harrison Odell, was born in October, 1843, and when two years of age was taken by his parents to a farm in Chattooga County, Georgia, was there reared and educated, and when the Civil war came on enlisted under the Hag of the Confederacy in the Sixth Georgia Cavalry, which was attached to the command of Gen. Joe Wheeler. He was never absent from his regiment and participated in many hard-fought engagements, but was never even slightly wounded, and when the war closed returned in safety to his family. Resuming agricultural pursuits, he has continued to be engaged therein during his entire career, and at present is one of the substantial farmers and influential citizens of his community, where he has been the incumbent of several local offices. Mr. Odell married Miss Frances J. Adams, also a native of Chattooga County, Georgia, who still survives and has been the mother of seven children: C. L., a practicing attorney of Bessemer, Alabama; Lillie, who is the wife of John L. Ray, residing on the old homestead in Georgia; Gertrude, who is the wife of C. R. Tucker of Lyerly, Georgia; Mary A., who resides with her parents; Charles F., of Birmingham, Alabama; Claude, of Bessemer, Alabama; and William Harrison, who was the second in order of birth. The mother of these children is now seventy years of age but, like her husband, is hale and hearty and in full possession of her faculties.

William Harrison Odell was born on the homestead in Chattooga County, Georgia, August 31, 1874. After attending the public schools of the locality of his birth he went to Gaylesville (Alabama) Institute, from which institution he was graduated in 1896, and after some further preparation was admitted to the bar at Summerville, Georgia, July 16, 1897. He began his practice at Ringgold, Georgia, where he was married October 17, 1899, to Miss Alma Gordon, a native of that state and a daughter of Judge Thomas M. and Ophelia J. Gordon. Mrs. Odell’s father was a cousin of Gen. John B. Gordon and a descendant of the Gordons of Scotland.

Mr. Odell continued his law practice in Ringgold and Dalton, Georgia, until 1910, on March 1st of which year he arrived at Sapulpa. Here he continued alone until June of the same year, when he formed a partnership with Lucien B. Wright, and the firm of Odell & Wright has since occupied offices in the First National Bank Building. Mr. Odell’s high standing among the practitioners of Creek County rests largely upon his happy faculty of being able to place facts in a point of view favorable to his client without recourse to misrepresentation. He belongs to the Creek County Bar Association, and continues to be, as at the outset of his career, a close and careful student. His business connections are not numerous, as he devotes himself almost unreservedly to his rapidly-increasing practice, but at present he is serving as secretary and treasurer of the Fidelity Gasoline Company of Sapulpa. A lifelong democrat, while residing at Ringgold, Georgia, he served as mayor for three years. With his family he belongs to the First Presbyterian Church. Mr. and Mrs. Odell arc the parents of one son, Dan Gordon, who is still attending school.