Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 08.djvu/172

 OTIS

OTTENDORFER

Sept. "), 17G9, he was badly beaten by one Robinson, a customs officer, supported by officers of the Britisli army and navy, for having attacked the customs department in the columns of the Boston Gazette. He received a severe sword-cut on the liead, and for the rest of his life was niildl}' insane. When he had received from Robinson a juiignient for damages of £2,000, he refused to take the money awarded because Robinson had written an apology. In June, 1775, while residing at Watertown, Mass., on hearing of the assembly of troops at Breeds Hill, he borrowed a musket from one of his neighbors, joined the recruits and participated in the battle of Bunker Hill. He removed to Andover, Mass., and in 1778 argued a case in Boston, but his mental powers were inadequate for the exertion and he returned to Andover. Shortly after his return, while standing in his doorway, he was struck by lightning and instantly killed. He is the author of: Rudiments of Latin Prosody (1760); Vindica- tion itfthe Conduct of the House of Representatives (1762): Rights of the Colonies Asserted (1765); Coiisideration in behalf of the Colonists (1765), and Power of Harmony in Prosaic Composition. The Massachusetts society. Sons of the Revolu- tion, placed a granite boulder holding a bronze inscription to his memory over his grave in the Old Granary Burying-Ground in Boston in 1898. He was named a.s eligible for a place in the Hall of Fame for Great Americans in 1900 in Class M, Rulers and Statesmen, and at the election in October received four votes. His daughter Elizabeth, on Oct. 4, 1776, married without his consent Lieut. Leonard Brown of the British army, who was wounded at Bunker Hill, and subsequently settled in Steaford, Lincolnshire, England. Her father, in his will, bequeathed to her "five shillings "; to his other daughter, Mary, and to her mother, Ruth Otis (who died in 1789), he bequeathed the residue of his estate and made them the executrices of liis will. His only son, James, died when eighteen years of age, and his daughter Mary married Benjamin Lincoln, Jr. (1756-1784), eldest son of Gen. Benjamin Lincoln. James Otis died at the Osgood House, Andover, Mass., May 2.3. 1783.

OTIS, James. See Kaler, James Otis.

OTIS, Samuel Allyne, delegate, was born in Barnstable, Mass., Nov. 24, 1740; son of James and Mary (Allyne) Otis, and brother of James Otis the patriot. He was graduated from Harvard second in his class, A.B., 1759, A.M., 1762; studied law and engaged in business in Boston, Mass., as a merchant. He was a representative in the Massachusetts legislature, 1776-88, and speaker, 1784: a member of the Massachusetts constitu- tional convention, 1780. and a member of the board of war. He was one of the commissioners

that negotiated with the leaders of Shays's rebel- lion in 1787; was a delegate to the continental congress, 1787-88, and upon the meeting of the first U.S. congress, March 4, 1789. was made secretary of the senate, which office he held, 1789-

1814. He was married to Elizabeth, daughter of Harrison Gray, treasurer of Massachusetts. He died in Washington, D.C., April 22, 1814.

OTJEN, Theobold, representative, was born in West China, St. Clair county, Mich., Oct. 27, 1851; son of John C. and Dorothea (Schriner) Otjen. He attended the academy at Marine City, Mich., and a private school in Detroit, Mich., under Prof. P. M. Patterson, and was employed as foreman in a rolling mill at Milwaukee, Wis., 1870-72. He was graduated from the law de- partment of the Universit}' of Michigan in 1875 and practiced law in Detroit until 1883, when he removed to Milwaukee. He was a member of the common council of the city, 1887-94; a trus- tee of the public library, 1887-91. and of the public museum, 1891-94; was defeated for city comptroller in April, 1892; was the un- successful Republican candidate for represen- tative in the 53d congress in 1892 and for the vacancy caused by the resignation of John Mitchell in 1893, and was a representative from the fourth Wisconsin district in the 54th, 55th, 56th and 57th congresses, 1895-1903.

OTTENDORFER, Anna (Behr), philanthro- pist, was born in Wiirzburg, Bavaria, Feb. 13,

1815. She removed to the home of her brother in Niagara county, N.Y., in 1837, and in 1838 mar- ried Jacob Uhl, who opened a small printing office in New York city in 1844. He purchased the Xeiv Yorker Staats-Zeitung, a German weekly, in 1845, which, through the help of his wife, greatly prospered and became a daily in 1849. Upon the death of Mr. Uhl in 1852, his wife be- came proprietor of the Staats-Zeitung, managing it alone until July, 1859, when she married Os- wald Ottendorfer (q.v.), the latter assuming the position of editor-in-chief, while she remained the business manager. When the propertj' of the paper, which had become the leading German journal in the United States, was turned into a stock company, Mrs. Ottendorfer gave the employees a ten per cent dividend on their annual salaries, subsequently raising it to fifteen per cent. She also bequeathed them ^25,000 in lier will. She built and endowed the Isabella Home for Aged Women at Astoria, L.I., in 1875. at a cost of $150,- 000, in memory of her daughter Isabella; contrib- uted about $40,000 to a memorial fund in support of several educational in.stitutions in 1881; built and furnished tiie woman's pavilion of the Ger- man hospital in New York city at a cost of $75.- 000, and gave $100,000 and a library to the Ger- man dispensary on Second avenue. New York