GEORGE W. ODELL, farmer, P.O. Burnt Prairie.  Among the wide awake young farmers of Wayne County we class him whose name heads this sketch.  He was born October 14, 1852, in this county; his father, Balus Odell, was a native of Kentucky, where he learned the blacksmith trade.  It is supposed that he made the first steel plow in this county, which event was the wonder of the neighborhood for months.  He came here before the Black Hawk war, and is yet living in this county, where he at one time owned several hundred acres, for a great part of which he only paid 12 1/2 cents per acre. He has some time ago given the land to his children.  He is a good example of a self made man, having carried on his back all his eartly possessions to his new home at his marriage.  The mother of our subject was Elizabeth (Carter) Odell, a native of this county, where she also died.  She is a daughter of  Joseph Carter, and is the mother of thirteen children, of whom ten are now living ---- John R., Joseph D., George W., Calvin, Sally A. Funkhouser, Emeline Short, Nancy E. Hunsinger, Mary J. Colbert, Maggis Hunsinger, Eliza Atteberry.  Our subject was educated in the common schools of this county.  Here he farmed and was also married, March 15, 1874, to Miss Alfarata Hunsinger, born November 12, 1857.  She is a daughter of Joseph and Emily (Kuykendall) Hunsinger, both natives of Illinois.  Joseph Hunsinger's father, John Hunsinger, married Nancy Crowler, a native of Pennsylvania.  Mrs. Emily (Kuykendall) Hunsinger's father, named Henry Kuykendall, married Karenhappuch Greathouse, a native of Indiana.  She is the only one now living of the grandparents, and although aged threescore and ten, she carries her age well, and is quite strong and active for a woman of her age.  She is the mother of three children -- Anna G., born April 25, 1875; Mary M., born October 31, 1878; and Laura E., born November 9, 1881. Mr. Odell is a member of the A.O.U.W. fraternity, Fairfield Lodge No 65.  He has a farm of 120 acres, which is well improved.  He has been School Treasurer seven years, Tax Collector three terms and Township Supervisor two terms.