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Addison Odum, blacksmith and wood-workman, was born in what is now Williamson County in 1834, the son of Moses and Lucy (Lawrence) Odum. The father, of English ancestry, born in North Carolina in 1805, was a son of Moses, Sr., and removed to Smith County, Tenn., when but a child, where he was reared, and married about 1824. He soon became a farmer and stock raiser of Williamson County (then Franklin), and served in the Black Hawk war. The mother, German in descent, born in Virginia in 1809, died when our subject was but ten years old. Both were Regular Baptists. With farm pioneer advantages our subject learned blacksmithing with his brother Dempsey, two years at $5 per month, and drawing wood at night for his clothes. He then was partner until 1859, making over 500 plows in one year, nearly all that broke the soil of Franklin County. He then assumed the business himself until his sons took it up in the last few years. In 1855 he married Elizabeth, daughter of Joshua and Ann Bartlett, born in Vermont. Their children are Winfield S., Nettie (deceased), Mattie, Dempsey, Belle, Ida M. (deceased) and Pearl. In 1878 he was elected justice, but after six months resigned his commission, and for several years, was a member of the board of trustees. In November, 1861, he went to Cairo to visit two brothers in the army there, and joined the Thirty-first Illinois, as they were starting out to Belmont, Mo., and for three days gallant service, and not being regularly enlisted, he was awarded his gun and uniform and discharged. The following October he enlisted in Company F, Fifteenth Illinois Cavalry, and after six months active service was discharged on account of disability. He is a
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Republican, and first voted for Fillmore. He is a Mason and an Odd Fellow, and he and his wife are members of the United Brethren Church.