Bio of John D. OTIS (b.1833 d.1902), Yellow Medicine Co., MN

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JOHN D. OTIS (1870)

John D. Otis, deceased, who, in later life served Yellow Medicine county 
for fourteen years as judge of probate, was one of the earliest settlers 
of the Granite Falls country, coming with the settlers of 1870.

Judge Otis, as he was for many years familiarly called, was born in Lynn,
Massachusetts, June 13, 1833.  Coming westward with the "Star of Empire", 
he located in the vicinity of Granite Falls in 1879, before the 
organization of the county.  In 1873, when the township in which he had 
made settlement took up local government, it was named Otis , in his honor.
Judge Otis had the distinction of bringing the first white woman to Otis 
township, not one having resided in that township previous to the coming 
of Mrs. Otis.

At the general election of 1872 Mr. Otis was elected a member of the Board
of County Commissioners, and some years later served as chairman of the
board.  Some time after retirement from the commissioner's office he moved
to Texas, but after a limited residence there he returned to Yellow 
Medicine county, which was ever afterward his home.

He was elected judge of probate at the regular election in 1888, and so 
well were the voters of the county satisfied with his conduct of the 
office that he was re-elected at each election thereafter until his death 
which occurred on September 12, 1902.

Source: "A History of Yellow Medicine County" by Arthur P. Rose
Published 1914