Horace Otis Biography


	This biography appears on pages 395-396 in "History of Dakota 
	Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. V (1915) and was 
	scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				HORACE OTIS. 

	Horace Otis, whose home is east of Yankton, is field man with the 
Dakota Farmer and teas a wide acquaintance throughout the state as a 
representative of that paper. He was born May 10, 1856, at Poynette, 
Columbia county, Wisconsin, a son of Belus and Maria (Brothers) Otis, 
both of whom were natives of New York. They became early settlers of 
Wisconsin and continued to make their home in that state as long as 
they lived. The father passed away in 1872 and the mother in 1914. 

	Horace Otis remained in Wisconsin continuously from his birth 
until he was about twenty years of age, when he went to Mower county, 
Minnesota, where his marriage was celebrated on the 18th of March, 
1880, Miss Mary Whiting, of Grand Meadow, Minnesota, becoming his wife. 
She is a daughter of Ralph B. and Emma (Kling) Whiting, natives of 
Connecticut and Germany respectively. To Mr. and Mrs. Otis have been 
born seven children. Blanche is now the wife of J. A. Kittelson, who 
came as an orphan boy from Norway and has made his own way in the world 
from early youth. He was graduated from the Poynette (Wis.) Academy and 
won a scholarship in Beloit College. At Beloit he won a six hundred 
dollar scholarship to the University of Wisconsin and in the university 
he was honor man in his class. After his graduation he remained at 
Madison, Wisconsin, where he is now studying medicine. Earl, the second 
member of the family, is engaged in business in Sioux City. Grace is 
the wife of Frank Emerson, a dairyman living northwest of Yankton. 
Lloyd is in the employ of the Southern Pacific Railroad. Edith and Eva 
are both living in Kansas City, Missouri. Clifford, who completes the 
family, is a pupil in the schools of Yankton county. 

	Mr. Otis dates his residence in Dakota from the last of December, 
1879, when he arrived from Mower county, Minnesota. He filed on a 
homestead claim in Moody county, eight miles from Flandreau and for 
seven years lived upon that claim, proving up under President 
Cleveland. In 1886 he removed to Kingsbury county, where he entered the 
employ of his brother-in-law, George H. Whiting, whom he assisted in 
establishing and conducting a nursery business. Many hardships were 
met. They endured losses through hail and drought and met with other 
discouraging conditions. Mr. Otis continued with Mr. Whiting in 
Kingsbury and Yankton counties and was connected with him in business 
until he became a representative of the Dakota Farmer, with which he 
has now long been associated. For twelve years he was in the 
subscription department and for five years in the live stock 
department, visiting sales, live stock shows in the big centers and 
reporting everything of interest to live stock breeders and dealers. He 
is now field man on the paper and his efforts have been a contributing 
factor to the success of that journal. 

	Mr. Otis is a stalwart republican in his political views and 
fraternally he is connected with the Odd Fellows and the Ancient Order 
of United Workmen. As a pioneer settler of Dakota he relates many 
interesting incidents of the early days and the methods of living upon 
the frontier. The first winter which he passed in Moody county was 
spent in a sod house and for fuel he burned twisted straw, which he 
hauled on a hand sled. The neighbors asked him to go to Verdi on the 
railroad with his sled, a distance of twenty miles, to get meat which 
had been sent out from the cast. The snow melted through the day so 
that the sled broke through, making a very hard return trip. For a 
short time Mr. Otis was out in the blizzard of January, 1888. He had 
turned his cattle out to water, but he got all safely back to the barn 
and reached his house in safety. Another storm in the same month was 
nearly as bad. He also aided in fighting prairie fires and on one 
occasion he and his brother-in-law, Mr. Whiting, had an exciting 
experience having started a back fire which threatened to get away from 
them, but finally they put it out by throwing the door of a freight car 
over the largest flames and succeeded in extinguishing the rest of it. 
The fiercest prairie fire which Mr. Otis ever witnessed started by 
sparks from the railroad and ran over twenty miles in almost as many 
minutes. The conditions of the early days have passed away, but the 
memory of many settlers yet connects that primitive period with the 
progressive present and to Mr. Otis, as to others, Yankton county and 
the state owes a debt of gratitude for what they accomplished in 
promoting the early work of development and improvement in this section 
of the country.