Hon. Charles Ellis Ott, Washington Parish, Louisiana Submitted by Mike Miller ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ Hon. Charles S. Ellis Ott. One of the prominent citizens of Bogalusa. Louisiana, Hon. Charles Ellis Ott, attorney-at-law and serving in the office of city judge, has been foremost in the affairs of this community for the last seventeen years, and as lawyer, jurist and in other capacities is well and favorably known throughout Washington Parish. Judge Ott was born at Mt. Hermon, Washington Parish, Louisiana, August 6, 1881. His parents were David Jackson and Rosa (Powell) Ott, the former of whom was born at Mt. Hermon in 1845, on the plantation of his father, who had come from South Carolina, where the Otts originally settled when the first of the name came from Germany as early as 1730. The grandfather of Judge Ott was an extensive planter near Mt. Hermon, and died there, as did his wife, the latter of whom survived until 1895. Her maiden name was Margaret Tate, and she was born in Virginia in 1815. David Jackson Ott spent his life on his estate at Mt. Hermon, and died there December 24, 1905, a Confederate veteran, having served as a soldier during the latter part of the war between the states. He belonged to the Masonic fraternity, was a democrat in political sentiment, and for many years was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He married Rosa Powell, who was born in Amite County, Mississippi, in 1856, and died at Mt. Hermon April 19, 1921. Her ancestors came originally from Scotland and settled in Virginia, moving later to Georgia, and about 1800 to Mississippi. The following children were born to this marriage: Denman D., who owns and operates the old home farm at Mt. Hermon; Charles Ellis; William Oscar, who is chief surgeon of the Harris Sanitarium, Fort Worth, Texas, and late a surgeon on the staff of the Mayo Hospital, Rochester, Minnesota, is a veteran of the World war, in which he served one year as a lieutenant in the Medical Corps; Bessie Margaret, who is the wife of Fleet R. Miller, a merchant at Mt. Hermon; Curtis D., who is a railway mail clerk, is an overseas veteran of the World war, having served six months in France as a corporal in the Eighty-seventh Division, American Army, and took part in the Argonne offensive; Mamie Rose, who is the wife of Eugene Smith, a farmer in Pike County, Mississippi; and Fannie and Ruth, who are students in Witworth College at Brookhaven, Mississippi. After completing his high school course at Mt. Hermon, Charles Ellis Ott taught school in Washington Parish for five years and then entered the University of Mississippi at Oxford and was graduated from its School of Law in the class of 1904, with the degree of LL. B. During the following two years he served as principal of the Mt. Hermon High School, and in 1907 came to Bogalusa to engage in the general practice of law. In 1914 he was elected city judge, and every four years since has been re-elected without opposition, and for four years has been a member of the school board, representing the Fourth Ward of Washington Parish. His offices are situated in the Elks Building on Austin Street. He is a member of the Louisiana State Bar Association, and has played an important part professionally in much decisive litigation in this section for more than a decade. He is a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Bogalusa, an elder in the same, and is a director of the Bogalusa Young Men's Christian Association. Judge Ott married at Hackley, Louisiana, December 25, 1907, Miss Mamie Bickham, whose father, William E, Bickham, survives and is a merchant at Clifton, Louisiana. Mrs. Ott died April 3, 1909, leaving one son, Willie Charles, who was born two days earlier. Judge Ott married for his second wife, June 6, 1911, at Edwards, Mississippi, Miss Lane Cannada, a daughter of James A. and Narcissa (Wells) Cannada, the latter of whom is deceased. The father of Mrs. Ott, a retired planter of Hinds County, Mississippi, as a member of Judge Ott's household. Judge and Mrs. Ott have one daughter, Doris Lane, who was born December 11, 1919. Mrs. Ott is a graduate of the French Camp Academy, Mississippi. Judge Ott's political upbringing was in the democratic party, and he has never seen any reason to modify the principles he imbibed even in childhood. During the World war he was chairman of the Four-Minute Speakers' Bureau of Washington Parish, and patriotically assisted to the extent of his power in all the drives and movements for the good of the cause, serving also as the head of the Publicity Bureau of the parish. He is a Knight Templar Mason and a Shriner, a member of Center Lodge No. 244, A. F. and A. M., at Bogalusa; Bogalusa Chapter No. 61, R. A. M., of which he is a past high priest; Palestine Commandery No. 23, Knights Templar, of which he is eminent commander; and belongs to Jerusalem Temple, Mystic Shrine, at New Orleans. He has large property interests at Bogalusa, these including his handsome private residence on Louisiana Avenue, surrounded by a spacious lawn. A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 149-150, by Henry E. Chambers. Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.