Odam, Dempsey

Flourished: Williamson County, Illinois

Alternate name: Odum

Odam came to Franklin County, Illinois in 1815 with his brothers, and by 1833, he had settled in a part of the county that would later become Williamson County. Odam served in the Illinois House of Representatives alongside Abraham Lincoln in the Tenth and Twelfth General Assemblies, representing Franklin County from 1836 to 1838 and representing Williamson and Franklin counties from 1840 to 1842. He was later elected into the Illinois Senate for two consecutive terms, 1849 to 1850, and 1851 to 1852, representing Williamson County.

Barbara Burr Hubbs, Pioneer Folks and Places: An Historic Gazetteer of Williamson County, Illinois (Herrin, IL: Herrin Daily Journal, 1939), 25-26; Franklin County, Illinois, 1818-1997 (Paducah, KY: Turner, 1996), 114; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac, 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 206, 209, 216-17.