By Julie Huebel, PCHA
There has been lots of speculation about what family the letter “O” would be, well, wait no more! For this letter, the research was a bit overwhelming. For some of these articles I have a hard time finding information on the family, but this one is very much the opposite. It was a real challenge to sift through all of the information we had in our archives and also things found online to boil it down for one article, but here goes…O is for Ottman.
I want to warn you; this is a family that likes to reuse the same names over and over. Also, the early beginnings of this family in the U.S. are a bit fuzzy, I have found conflicting information on when the family arrived in the “New World” and from what country they came from. I just want to give those warnings up front, it’s hard to know some of these early facts for certain, especially given that I do not have the time to really do a thorough job researching. People spend decades of their life researching their family, I am only able to scratch the surface with this series. Hopefully someone out there has done more research and can share with us for our archives.
This local family’s ancestors arrived in New York from either Holland or Germany. I’ve seen one person write they came from Holland in 1737 and another source from a book contributed to by several descendants claim that Christian Ottman came from Germany in 1761. What I have found in my limited online research is only mentions of Germany. This same book claims the name was found spelled Uttman, Ottman, Otman, Utman, and Oatmen by various descendants.
Christian Ottman (1731-1821) was married to Elizabeth “Christina” (Brown/Braun) and they lived in Schoharie County, New York. Christian died at the ripe old age of 102. There’s an interesting (alleged) story involving a few of Christian’s children that were captured and held by Native Americans in September of 1782 in Niagara in Canada. Sons, William, Nicholas, and Peter were captured and held by a local tribe and when they were released, one of their captors came with them. It was claimed that the boy, Peter, wished to go back with his captor as he had “become fascinated with Indian life.” I was able to confirm that there were raids during this time at the tail end of the Revolutionary War in the Schoharie area where this family lived that were done by the Iroquois who were allied with the Loyalists (Britain) during the war. So, there may be some truth in this family lore.
William/Wilhelm (1767-1854) was a son of Christian and Christina, born in Schoharie, New York. He married Catherine (Frantz) and among their children was David, we will follow his line from here. David (1797-1859) married Mary (Moak) in New York state, and they had 15 children that all lived to adulthood. David was a farmer but was also licensed as a minister. In 1841 he is said to have organized a church at Center Valley, NY. After he moved to Wisconsin, there are claims he was involved in starting up the Lutheran Church of Sharon in September of 1845 (unfortunately, I could not find mention of him in the church history to confirm). Sharon, Wisconsin being named for Sharon, NY where the family came from. David died in a farm accident where he fell from a grain stack and broke his neck. He and his wife are buried in the Brick Church Cemetery in Walworth, WI.
Nelson Ottman (1817-1892) married Sarah Maria “Mari” (Day) in their native state of New York, they started their family, then moved to Walworth County, Wisconsin in 1847, following his parents and other family members to that area. Nelson and Sarah expanded their family there, then they came to Pierce County in 1859, purchasing 160 acres in Trimbelle County in an area that is still referred to as Ottman Corners. We are able to trace the family’s journey to Pierce County based on a combination of census records and where their children are recorded as being born. They raised their family here in Pierce County and are buried in the Trimbelle Cemetery. Nelson’s brother James also came to Trimbelle, he unfortunately lived very near the infamous Charlotte Lamb. Charlotte was Pierce County’s first serial killer. (Please note, there is a different Charlotte Lamb that lived in the Brookville area west of Spring Valley and she didn’t murder anyone, that I know of.) Charlotte poisoned James’ wife, Irene, along with several others. Charlotte seemed to have had her sights set on replacing Irene as a wife to James. A pattern of behavior for her. Charlotte is said to have described James Ottman as “the best man in the world.” She would eventually go to prison, her life is a very interesting story, our board member/volunteer Jayne Hoffman did a fantastic article on her in one of our PCHA Newsletter Dark Side articles. The story made national news back in 1872. James married again in Hudson by 1877 and moved to Iowa and later to Davidson County, South Dakota where he and his daughter Irene/Rena named after her mother, are both buried.
Elmwood’s Ottman family descends from Nelson’s eldest son, David Sylvanus Ottman (1841-1902). David came with his family to Wisconsin as a boy. He married Amanda (Harp) in 1862. Amanda is likely the older woman in the photo, she lived to be 91. They are buried in Ellsworth’s Maple Grove Cemetery.
Among David and Amanda’s children was Clarence (1879-1945), born in Trimbelle Township. He married Rose Mae (Funk) of Trenton Township in 1900. They moved to the Elmwood area by 1910 and raised their children there. They first rented a place in Rock Elm Township and then moved to town into a little house between the railroad tracks and the road that would become Partridge Street. Clarence worked at the Elmwood Creamery for 14 years and also worked for Madson’s and Carter’s area sawmills. They had ten children: Clinton (stillborn), Bernard, Edwin, David, Marie Belle, Marvin, Gladys (Wheeler), Clifford, Harry, and another child who died as an infant. Their second oldest, Edwin, had died at only 12 or 13 years of age of appendicitis in 1917. Their son Harry was the first Elmwood area soldier that died in WWII, the Elmwood Legion is named in his honor. There are many descendants of this family still in the Elmwood area today and many more across the entire county.
