My Genealogy Hound

William H. Otto, Jr., furniture dealer and undertaker, at New Haven, is a native of Washington, Mo., born in 1859, and is the third of eight children born to William H., Sr., and Catherine (Baumann) Otto, natives of Germany, born December 3, 1830, and November 1, 1833, respectively. When the father was seven and the mother thirteen, they came to the United States with their parents, and were married in Franklin County, Mo., March 30, 1855. The father farmed for three years and then removed to Washington where he engaged in the carpenter business until 1867. He then established the furniture and under taking business, which he has continued ever since. His father, John Henry Otto, was born April 16, 1803, in Hanover, Germany, and came to the United States and to Franklin County, Mo., in November, 1835, being one of the earliest settlers of the county, and has made his home here for nearly fifty-three years. He is a manufacturer of fanning mills and feed cutters. He was a ship carpenter in early life. He is still living and resides with his youngest daughter, at Casco postoffice. His father also came to Missouri, and settled in Franklin County when there were no railroads in the State, and when everything was in a wild and unsettled condition, and the nearest trading post was St. Louis. Our subject received his education in the schools of Washington, and at the age of twenty he left home and went to St. Louis, where he worked for several months as an employe. He then determined to go into business upon his own responsibility. He soon found a suitable location at New Haven, where, in 1881, he opened up a business which has since steadily increased. December 25, 1882, he married Miss Fannie, daughter of Nicholas and Martha Shookman. Tothis union was born one child: Edmund William. The great grandfather Shookman lived to be one hundred and four years old. Mr. Otto is a Republican in politics and cast his first presidential vote for James A. Garfield, in 1880. He is a member of the Saxon Lutheran Church, and his wife is a member of the Christian Church.