| Notes |
- Louis Alfred Otto was the fifth child of John and Cornelia Hage Otto, born on June 5, 1875, in a family of five boys and one sister. His father was a "bayman", and as soon as the boys were physically able they accompanied their father on the bay to tong for clams or oysters, to dredge for scallops, to net for fish. Attendance at school was secondary to working, and only when the bay was iced over, or the weather was too mean to work in exposed locations were the boys allowed to go to school. As a result Louis received only about 4 years of schooling ---during Januaries and Februaries. Later he supplemented this meager formal training with extensive reading.
Father John Otto was a good Dutchman and believed in paying homage to his religion, requiring his family to sit through long prayers and devotions, a practice not understandable to young children wishing to get out and play with their contemporaries. In spite of irksome prayer time at home, Louis and his brothers hung around local out-of-doors revival meetings enough to become well versed in the hymns which were used, s° he could teach them to his daughter later.
Apparently father John Otto was a strict disciplinarian while at work too. Per my father, one day he was berating John Jr. for loafing while tonging. To escape the tirade John Jr. jumped overboard and swam to an oyster lot stake for support. The stake, weakened by toredo worms, broke off, and john Jr. had no choice but to come back to the boat and face his father, who was armed with a rope's end. As soon as they were able to support themselves all of the boys left home and made their own way in the world. Louis, and his younger brother Bert, chose to buy their own sailboat and to live on-board her, ice-out to ice-in, while tonging clams in Prince's Bay on the southeasterly side of Staten Island, and selling their catches at the Fulton Fish Market in New York. Somewhere around 1900-1902 Lou fell from the deck into the hold, badly injuring one knee. After months in a hospital on Staten Island, with his knee cap being replaced by a silver plate, he emerged on crutches and with a brace on his leg. Facing insuperable dificulities in resuming their former life, Lou and Bert returned to Sayville to create a new world for themselves.
The new world emerged as Otto Bros. Retail Coal Sales. They purchased a piece of property on the north side of the Long Island Railroad tracks in Sayville, put in a railroad siding and the necessary bins, and became coal dealers. After about five years Bert decided to become a butcher, worked with brother Tom to learn the business, and set up a butcher store in Bayshore. The coal yard became Louis A. Otto, Coal and Wood, Tel. Conn. 157.
The coal yard continued to operate for many years. Lou created many mechanical coal moving machines to reduce the back-breaking labor normally present. Many of these seemed patentable, but a friend of his in Sayville named Rohm had a valid patent on "friction tape". Goodyear and Firestone produced and sold this material without paying royalties, and postponed and delayed the law suits which Rohm threw at them until he ran out of money. Lou did not bother with patents but soon engineers from Link Belt appeared and went over his machines with measuring tapes (with Lou's permission) and in a few years had commercial versions mf his machines on the market.
During the nineteen teens there were two to six draft horses stabled in the barn behind our house to provide tractive effort to the coal delivery wagons. These were joined by two to four milk cows, two to six pigs, and 25 to 40 chickens. Lou was a frustrated farmer, and harvested hay and grain for his animals from many outlying fields. Our gardens were extensive, with asparagus patches, ever bearing strawberries, many rows of peanuts, potatoes, cabbages, brussels sprouts, etc. During WW I we were nearly self sufficient by gardening and canning. Very early in my life I learned to ride my bike to Bayport, West Sayville and Sayville to deliver excess milk from our cows to selected customers.
During the early WW I years Lou became interested in lumbering, and developed a portable saw mill with which he could "log-off" the marketable maple, oak, and chestnut on private estates in Smithtown, Ronkonkoma, and South Haven. The increasing difficulty encountered in buying carload lots of coal, unless you had appropriate political connections, led Lou to sell the coal and wood business to Cecil Proctor, a local politician. Thereafter he devoted full time to the saw mill. When US entered WW I he moved the mill to the Patchogue yard of Bailey and Sons, and cut up locust trees into billets for policeman’s clubs. In November 1918 Lou received "Greetings from the President" to report for his army physical, but the end of the war cancelled this.
At the end of the war the saw mill was sold, and the proceeds used to purchase tools and materials for the Cuddle Chair Co. Cuddle Chairs unfortunately did not sell, and the investment was lost, so Lou turned to his first skill, clamming, H · built, with the help of his cousin Doodle Otto, a 30 ft. V bottom clamming boat, white oak frames, long-leaf yellow pine keel and planking. With this boat he again became a bayman, and with Sylvenus Titus James as a partner, he tonged clams in Great South Bay. One year there was a heavy set of scallops in the bay, so they added a mast, spars, jib and mainsail to the boat and dredged for scallops. Back at home, Louis Leslie Otto and others opened the scallops and prepared them for market. Joseph Weeks joined the team on the boat, and that winter Vene James died. Joe Weeks and Lou Otto clammed for a year or two longer, then came ashore and started a concrete building block business. The plant was at the corner of Lincoln Avenue and Church St., north of Sayville. This business prospered moderately, but in 1930 the breaking of a drag-line cable caused lacerations Lou's arm, an erysipelas infection, and Lou Otto's death.
The coal yard established by Lou and Bert Otto around 1902 was purchased by their older brother Tom in the late nineteen twenties and operated by him until his death in 49, and by his two daughters until 1959. About 1915 Louis Ruzicka became a wagon driver and delivery man for my father, and after serving in WW ll returned to the same job. He continued in this capacity for each successive owner ,until retiring About 1968.
Lou Otto rarely spent an evening at home. He maintained an office downtown in his brother Tom's butcher store, and roamed Main St., account book in his pocket, to meet his debtors when they had money. Saturdays were pay days then, and nearly everyone went shopping along Main St. that evening, so Lou was busy. His favorite haunt was Jake Stryker's fish market on South Main St., counters in front, fish storage and preparation room in the back, but in between was a lounging room with a card table and a pot-bellied stove. Pinochle was the favorite game. Lou also enjoyed watching baseball, would attend the local town-team games, and would even take his family along in the trusty model T to the out-of-town games.During his entire adult life ashore Lou was an active memberof the Sayville Military Band, playing the helical bass horn. His brother Tom played the baritone horn in this same band, and employee Lou Rnzicka played the Sousaphone.
I (LLO) believe that when I was born, as soon as my sex was established he went out and purchased an Eb Alto Horn so I could join him in the band. I did join this group at an early age, playing the Eb alto for many years, then switching to the Bb trumpet until leaving for college in 1J25.The John Otto children never~ operated as a cohesive group due to some family argument in the early 1900's. I saw my uncle Tom whenever I went into his butcher shop, but the other uncles and aunts I almost never saw. In the early twenties uncle Tom was trying to grow potatoes in sea weed in the beach sand, and one day all. five brothers, John, Tom, Case, Lou, and Bert got together on Tom's boat (somehow I got to go along) to go to the beach and plant these potatoes. The going was rough outside of Greene's river, and when we went into the west slip in West Sayville to get fuel, the boat sailed round and round the same spot. The anchor had fallen overboard~ from the foredeck and tied us to the bottom. ~ father indicated to me that this was a good example of uncle Tom's seamanship. In spite of this incident the rest of the day passed peacefully, but this is the last brotherly reunion of whlich we know.
Louis Alfred Otto was a tall man (6'-3"), blue eyes, with dark wavy hair and a cookie-duster mustache. He was very muscular from a lifetime of hard physical labor. He enjoyed reading, playing cards, watching baseball, and the military band.
To Descendants of the OTTO and DEGRAFF Families.
The accompanying family trees probably give you far more information about your ancestors than you cared to know.. Many of the strangers you see on the streets may be your shirt tail relatives. As with most family trees there must be some sap, and some black misshapen twigs. Fortunately this presentation gives them anonymity. Best leave them that way.
The records contain many gaps in information. Belle Otto worked on these gaps for several years,and Louis L. Otto has worked on them some. What is presented is the best information presently available. I hope it expands your knowledge of your"roots".
Using Belle's recorded information and my limited memory I have tried to give some personality (color, as it is called on TV) to key figures among our direct ancestor. For the present generation - -your many cousins -- I will let you gather your own information, you probably know it better than I.
For my generation, I know of only five cousins left: 1 ) Louis L. Otto, a retired professor living in Brooksville, Fla.; 2) Dr. Bertram B. Otto, a retired dentist from Bayshore, Long Island, living in Daytona, Fla.; 3) Julia Otto Wallace, a retired realtor from Bellport, Long Island, living in Brookhaven, Long Island; 4) Betty DeGraff DeRoo, an housewife living in Moorestown, New Jersey; and 5) David DeGraff, a stock brokers agent living in Bayport, Long Island. There may be a few others living in the Yonkers area of whom I am not aware. Your generation is spread from California to Vermont, and possibly farther.
The Otto and DeGraff families are long-lived. Check the records shown. Prepare yourselves for an extended retirement. As a caution, there are two hereditary defects which John Otto Sr. passed along to his descendants. He was deaf, and was afflicted with familial palsy. His son John and his daughter Anna were very deaf very early in life. His sons Thomas and Louis were partially deaf. In my generation Bertram Otto and Herbert Parkhill are partially deaf. Hopefully this trait will die out, but at present it is treatable by hearing aids.
Severe incidence of familial palsy seems to have missed John Otto';s children, but showed up in Belle and Louis L. Otto and Herbert Parkhill. Presently the condition is not curable, and only Inderal (propranolol) and ethyl alcohol are effective drugs against it. Indenial is also a heart and blood pressure medicine, and should only be taken under medical supervision. Ethyl alcohol is very effective, tho very temporary, but it is addictive, so beware. Hopefully this trait is recessive, and will also disappear.
Unfortunately for the impact of this genealogical record my generation is the last one to have lived in the Sayville area, and to have more than an inkling of the mono-ethnic character of West Sayville from the 1850's to the 1950's. One more generation of separation from our roots in Holland makes the connection with the "old country"; very tenuous also. For your information, West Sayville had only dutchmen (hollanders) in residence, northern East Islip had only Czechs, Waverly Ave. in Patchogue had only italians, Bohemia had only Czechs, Hagerman had only italians. There where also many other small mono-ethnic pockets on Long Island. World war II and its influx of city dwellers ended all this isolation.
There are several typing errors in this (per line that is).
Anyone wishing to type themselves a perfect copy has my permission.
L Otto ss
Family Background in Holland
Dinah DeGraff gave to Betty DeGraff DeRoo loose pages cut from two Dutch Bibles, carrying written records in Dutch. Since the paper was thin, the ink from one side bled through to the other side, and much of the ink has faded. Some of the script is difficult to read in itself, since the letters are in the forms used at that time and not used now.
The older Bible was printed in 1802, its pages are larger than the second Bible. It has not been translated, but with the help of a Dutch dictionary I have gleaned what I could. The smaller Bible pages were translated for me by a friend from Holland.
All the people involved (with the few exceptions noted) lived and died in Bruinisse (apparently an older spelling) or Brunisse (modern spelling), a community on the island of Duiveland in the delta of the_Scheldt-Maas river system below Rotterdam.
the older Bible
There are three different handwritings, and I would judge that they were written by (1) my great-great grandmother Ariejaantje Arijse Borsje *, who kept the records from her marriage in 1816 until her death in 1831, then (2) her husband Pieter de Koning, and finally (3) a third person, possibly
Pieter's second wife.
page 1 AnthS~
Ariejaantje Arijse Borsje, aged 23, and Pieter^de Koning, aged 21, were
married by the law and by the church on December 8, 1815 in Brunisse.
[The child Pieternella de Koning wrote 'Brrunisse. Pieternella
deKoning" on page 1 and scribbled on page 2.]
page 2 [In a different handwriting]
Johanna ..n.eerhat (?)was born on August 13, 1805 and baptized on August 18. She married Z ..... (? on August 15, 1832.
[My question: Was she the second wife?]
page 3 [In the handwriting of page 1]
Lena de Koning was born on Tuesday morning, February 3, 1818 at Wijk AS. [Apparently Wijk A5 was the home address.]
Anthonij de Koning was born on Wednesday morning, May 26, 1819.
Arij de Koning was born on Friday morning June 16, 1820.
Cornelia de Koning was born on Sunday morning October 21, 1821.
Dina de Koning was born on Friday morning June 13, 1823 at our home.
* There seem to be several spellings of this first name. Ultimately my great aunt, Hannah Verspoor Hiddink, who was named Ariaantje, converted it to Hannah.
Family background in Holland The older Dutch Bible, continued
page 4 [In the handwriting of page 1]
Pieternella de Koning was born on January 7, 1825 at 10 o';clock on Friday morning.
Anthonija de Koning was born on Thursday morning, July 26, 1827.
Anthonij de Koning was born on December 1, 1828, on Monday afternoon at 6 o';clock.
Willemiena de Koning was born on March 3, 1830, Wednesday, and baptized on July 6, 1830.
[At this point the handwriting changes, and I cannot read it. Apparently some one, perhaps named Leendert, died on June 7, 188&, aged 65 years,
7 months and 28 days. ]
page 5 [This page is in the handwriting I presume to be that of Pieterde Koning. ]
My child Anthonij de Koning died Monday, August 21, 1820, and was buried
on Thursday, August 26, 1820.
The child Anthonij de Koning died February 3, 1828
The child Anthonij de Koning died June 7, 1830, aged ....
My wife, Arijaantje Borsje died Monday, August 8, 1831, aged 38 5/12 years
and was buried August 10. Wijk A5.
page 6 [This page begins in the same handwriting as page 5, Pieter de Koning's;
My child Cornelia de Koning died Sunday, February 11, 1838, aged 16 years
6 months, and was buried on February 15. Wijk A5
My child Anthonij de Koning died at 5 o';clock on Monday, May 21, 1838
at three years, buried May 26. Wijk A5
[At this point the third handwriting appears, for the rest of the page.]
My mother Lena van den Busse died Thursday, March 16, 1844 and was
buried March 18, 1844.
My child Jan de Koning died Saturday on August 23, 1845, aged 8 months, 19 days, and was buried August 25.
The child Jan de Koning died on November 25, 1846, aged 7 months, 12 days.
END
Note: After the death of his first wife in 1831, Pieter de Koning married
again. There were apparently at least three children from this second marriage: Anthonij de Koning (1835-1838)
Jan de Koning (Dec. 1844-Aug. 1845) Jan de Koning (April 1846-Nov. 1846) Was this second wife the Jobanna mentioned earlier on page 2 of this Bible? Was her mother Lena van den Busse (see above for page 6)?
Apparently, if a child died, the first child born after this death was given the same name. There were 5 Anthony';s and 2 Jan';s.
Family background in Holland The smaller Dutch Bible
The smaller of these Dutch Bibles belonged to my great-grandmother,
Dina de Koning (Vetspoor), who kept all the records. This material was translated for me by a Dutch woman who did what she could with a poor copy.
page 1
This book belongs to Dina de Koning, born in Brunisse at Thuiswijk A5 on June 13, 1823 on Friday morning at 10 o'clock.
My mother Arieaanje Borsje died Monday, August 8, 1831 at the age of 38~ years and was buried August 10.
Pieter de Koning was born on August 24, 1795. He died February 20, 1854 at the age of 58 years, 6 months.
In the year 1820 on January & Arij de Koning was born. He died June 7, 1859 at the age of 39.
page 2
In the year 1860, on November 27, died Pieternella LaRooi, widow of
Arij de Koning, at the age of 37.
In the year 1830 on March 3, is born Willemina de Koning at home.
Willemina de Koning died March 11, 1868 at age 38 and was buried March l4.
In the year 1871 on June 13 Lena de Koning died at the age of 53 years months, in district A5
page 3
!n the year 1843 am I, Leendert Vetspoor, aged 28 years, and Dina De Koning, aged 19, married before the law on Saturday afternoon at 3 o'clock.
[This must have been in the spring.]
In the year 1814 on October 11, is born Leendert Vetspoor.
In the year 1793 on the 5th of May [?] is born Arieaantje Borsje on Sunday evening.
In the year 1821 on October 21 is born Cornelia de Koning, on Sunday morning at 7 o'clock in Brunisse at home, Cornelia died on Sunday morning at 6 o'clock on February 11, 1838 in her home at Thuis #5, and was buried on February 15, at age 16 years, 4 months.
page 4
My child Marinus Verspoor was born January 8, 1844, Monday morning at
7 o';clock, at Wijk B86.
In the year 1845 on February 13 is born Ariaantje Verspoor on Thursday morning at 3 o';clock at Wijk B86.
In the year 1849 on the 17th of March, Isabella Verspoor is born on Saturday morning at 7 o';clock at Thuiswijk B86.
In the year 1852 on September 25 is born Pieter Vetspoor, Saturday morning at 9 o';clock in Sayville.
My child Pieter Verspoor died July 25, 1853 on Monday morning at 6 o';clock at the age of 10 months.
Family Background in Holland The smaller Dutch Bible, continued
page 5
In the year 1868 on August 23, Marinus Vetspoor at the age of 24 years
and 7 months was married to Helen F. Blydenberg, aged 21 years and 2 months.
In the year 1877 on August 9, Marinus's wife died at the age of 30 years and 2 months, on Thursday morning at 6 o'clock.
END
Family Forebears-in Holland
Verspoor If the family followed the Dutch customs in naming children, and they appear to have done so, then the parents of Leendert Verspoor were named Marinus and Isabella.
De Koning
Pieter Anthse deKoning (8.24.1795-220.1854) m Ariaantje Arijse Borsje( 5.5. 1793-8.8. 1831)
Lena (2.3.1818-6.18.1871)
Anthonij (5.26.1819-8.21.1820)
Arij (6.16.1820-6.7.1859) m. Pieternella LaRooi (1823-11.27.1860)
Cornelia (10.21.1821-2.11.1838)
Dina (6.13.1823-12.24.1907) m.Leendert Vetspoor (see page 8 of DeGraff family tree)
Anthonija (7.26.1827-2.3.1825)
Pieternella (1.7.1825- ?)
Anthonij (12.1.1828-6.7.1830)
Willemiena (3.3.1830-3.11.1868)
Pieter deKoning married [2 .....
Anthonij (1835-5.21.1838)
jan (1.1845-8..23.1845)
jan (4.14.1846-11.26.1846)
There may have been other children.
FAMILY BACKGROUND IN AMERICA DEGRAFF FAMILY TREE,
Based upon information from Belle Verspoor DeGraff, tombstones in the Sayville Union Cemetery, items in The Suffolk County News, and the faulty recollections of descendants.
This record begins with those who lived in the United States.
: Indicates no children from this marriage.
Cornelius DeGraff, Sr. (2.14.1823-2.4.1894) m. Lucy (Leuntje) VanOverhois (3.6.1820-3.27.1903)
Hannah m ....... Andrews (Michigan) [Note
Crilla m ..... Varnum
others?
Matthew (3.11.1848-9.19.1919) m. Belle Verspoor (3.17,1848-3.12.1926 [See listing below on page 8 ]
Cornelius, Jr. ( ) m. Fannie Smith : [Note 2
Garret (10.9.1851-12.13.1937) m. Rebekah Rudolph 3.19.1858-8.25.1941)
William C. (10.26.1880- ) m. [1~ Hanna C. Koerwer (1887-1918)
Muriel m. m.[2] Consuela Ayres
Christine (1884-1978) m. George E. Pell
Doris P. m ..... George Evans
Gladys m .... Richard Winters
Josephine m. Benjamin Adams
Evelyn m... . McKenna
Garrett ,
John m. Gussie
Neil m. Caroline Fiala
Nell :
Gilbert m. Albertine Kryser
David
Carol (died young) :
Jules :
Laura m ..... Brandt
Nelly m. Olaf VonBommel Barbara m. Kenneth Nocar Robin
DeGraff family tree
(Children of John and Gussie DeGraff, continued)
Anna m. Milton Haas
Milton
Robert
Betty
Robert m . . .
Jacob~ ("Coby") m. [1] . . . VanDyke
"Harm" m. jenny Stark Albert ( a minister) Donald m. Gertrude . . · Virginia m ....
8 children
Henry M. m ....
Cornelius )"Kale") m ....
2 children
Lerna (18..-1955) m. B. F. Stout :
Matthew
Peter (5.12.1861-11.3.1899) m. Cornelia VanVessem (1865-1952)
Cornelius ("Taffy")(1888-1959) m .... James Warren Peter Garret
Matthew (1893-1963) m. Minnie Westerbeke
Dorothy
Richard m. Marjorie Egner
Barry
Bruce m. Margaret Mensching
Donald
Cornelia ( -19 ) m. Walter VanPopering
Walter
Ruth m .... DePree
Jean m .... Manion
Garret E. (10.28.1895-10.2.1925) m. Adrianna Saunders (a widow) Edgar
Myra m. Walter Rowland
June m .... Miller
Neltje (1898-1975) :
Adrianna (1900- ) m. Kenneth Campbell
Derry (adopted) (She lives in Washington, D.C.)
DeGraff Family Tree
(Children of Cornelius and Lucy DeGraff, continued)
Matthew (3.11.1848-9.19.1919) m. (3.23.1868) Belle Verspoor (3.17.1848-3.12.1926) (carried from page 6) (for her forebears, see page 1-5, 10)
Lena (10.21.1871-3.25.1879) : [Note 4
Dinah (4.25.1873-12.31.1955) : [Note 5
Cornelius (9.5.1874-12.2..19311 m. (1112.00) [1] Mary Jane Rhodes [Note 6
(1878.31.1912)
George Thomas ("Som") (4.12.02-1.14.63) m. Mattie Zegel Hall :
Burton Lester (1907-1969) m. Rachel Brown :
Cornelius) m. [2] (12.22.22) Dorothy Lay Archer (1890-11.21.28) [Note 7
Elizabeth Elliott (11.2.25 m. (10.23.48) Robert Lester DeRoo (son of Harry & Elsie DeRoo)
Peter David (8.14.49 m. (1..77) Linda
Christine Lay (3.12.55 m.5.25.74 Thomas J. Jackson
Janet Claire (2.26.55
Elizabeth Teale (3.3.60-
David Lay (3.12.28- ) m. (9.13.58) Gloria Kamna
Carol Ann (7.1.60- )
David Peter (11.26.64- )
Judith Marie (12.30.65-) !
Belle (Lena Isabelle) 8.18.1876-9.27.1937) m. (12.3.03) Louis Alfred Otto
(6.5.75-11.15.30) [Note 8
Lucy Belle (1.1.05-2.28.81 m. (7.25.64) Samuel Armstrong Talbot : (4.19.03-2.20.67) [Note 9
Louis Leslie <10.25.10-) m (7.16.38) Dorothy Elaine Hiller (7.3.15- ) Note 10
Carol Louise (10.2.41- )(William Craig Moody (10.25.41-
Christopher Edward (11.15.682)
Ian Craig (8.23.72-)
Elaine Frances (3.27.44- ) m. (6.29.77) Thomas Sigardson, Jr.
Robert Louis (12.31.45- ) m. (8.19.67) Judith Hahn
Sean Robert (7.27.70-)
Matthew Louis (7.31.73-)
Charles Raymond (10.15.15-5.1.60) m. (6.25.37) Johanna Gertrude Huson (5.23.16-2.22.63)
Jan Charles Huson (4.21.38- ) m. (9.12.59) Susan Gore (daughter of Wilbert & Vene Gore)
Jan Peter (9.14.60-)
Joel Christopher (6.14.62-)
Nathan Charles (4.14.65-)
Joann Carolyn DeGraff (2.20.40-) m. (8.20.60)Robert Thomas K'Burg (son of Robert & Thomas K,burg)
???????m. 2(6.2G. 62) Glenda Carol Johnson{ 9~????????
DeGraff Family Tree
(children of Charles Raymond Otto continued)
Jason Lewis (12.8.44-) m. Susan Moon (1. .48)
Jennifer Lynn (11.15.58-)
Jason Christopher (8.17.71-)
Kristin Belle (9.21.46) m. (6.22.68) Tunis Coale Foltz, Jr. (6.29.43- Son of T.C.Sr. & Foltz
Beth Joann (8.27.72)
Jason Tunis (3.22.76)
Nell Frederick (12.31.d9-) m. (9.13.69) Linda Gottardi Eric Peter (9.27.51-)
Leonard 5.4.1878-12.26.1953) m. Sarah E. Newton (1881-1950) :Note 12 Lucy (6.18.84-5.15.1937) : Note 13
DeGraff Family Tree - Verspoor Section
Leendert Verspoor (10.11.1814-6.1.1884) m. Dirsde Koning (6.13.1823-12.24.190~ [For their forebears, see pages 1-5] Note 14 · · n (1~yr~S77) .
Marinus (1844-1923) m 1 8.28.23.1868)_Ellen F. Blydeburgh
2. Angeline Drain: 3] Aggie ,Williuams Note 5
Ida m. Sylvanus James
Frederick ( -64) m. Edith
Edith m. Stuart Ball
Stuart M., Jr.
Barbara Ashley (1950-)
Ethel m. Kenneth Milburn Susan Denise (1951-)
Cynthia Ashley (1953- )
Andrew (1983- )
Helen m. George Corwin : [They lived in Southhampton, N.Y.]
Irene :
Sylvia m. Orlie Ray Burger
Frederick (1922-1957) m.
Linda
Alan
Marcia m. Cripps
Leonard, m. Grace · · ·
Elsie m. John Edwards
Clarence m .... Euzicka
Kenneth
Roy
Ethel (died young)
Hannah (2.13.1845-7.18.1937) m. John Hiddink 9.21.1839-3.28.1903):[Note 18
(Hannah was christened Ariaantje)
Belle (Isabelle) (3.17.1848-3.12.1926) m. Matthew DeGraff (!848-1919]
For their descendants see pages 8,9)
Pieter (9.25. 1852-7.25. 1853) His grave beside his parents is marked 'Baby".
Hiddink Family (came to Sayville in 1852 )
Hendrik Jan Hiddink (1802-73) m. Henrietta Florida van Holten (1803-69) Adolphus (1828-75)
Bernard (1834-94) m. Lorena (1843-1927)
John H. (1865-72)
Marinus (1866-1914)
John A. (1874-1931 )
John (1839-1903) m. Hannah Verspoor { 1845-1937 )(Great Aunt Hannah)
Note 8
Belle (Lena Isabelle) DeGraff was the fourth child of Belle and Matthew DeGraff. Until her marriage to Louis Alfred Otto she lived at the family home at 53 Greeley Ave. She attended the local elementary school, and then trained as a seamstress and dressmaker, living for a time in Brooklyn for this training. After her marriage in 1903 she and her husband moved to the stone front house farther up Greeley Avenue which had been built as Ike Greene';s architecture office. A daughter Belle (Lucy Belle) and a son Louis Leslie were born there, and in 1911 the family moved to a new home which had been built for them at 79 Greeley Ave. Another son~ Charles, was born in this house in 1914. During the early 1920s this home was rented to residents from N.Y. City, while the Otto family lived temporarily at 22 Willerr Ave. In 1930 she accepted her eight-month old nephew, David DeGraff into her home after the unexpected death of his mother, and kept him until her death in 1937 (coronary thrombosis).
Belle was relatively tall (5';-10") and erect, pink-cheeked and comely of face, with brown eyes and very long dark hair. She was a woman of great understanding and sympathy, to whom man~ persons came for comfort and guidance when troubled. She was active in the Sayville Congregational Church, serving a term as president of its wornaris society, the Needlecraft Club. She helped found the Sayville Library Association, and was a founding member of the Women's Village Improvement Society, serving a term as president but declining to be its candidate for member of the Sayville School Board of Education. For man~ years she was active in the Sayville Study Club, a group interested in literature. Best of all, she maintained a home to which four children looked with reverent memories, as they strove to provide the same atmosphere for their own children.
Louis Alfred Otto was the fifth child of John and Cornelia Hage Otto, born on June 5, 1875, in a family of five boys and one sister. His father was a "bayman";, and as soon as the boys were physically able they accompanied their father on the bay to tong for clams or oysters, to dredge for scallops, to net for fish. Attendance at school was secondary to working, and only when the bay was iced over, or the weather was too mean to work in exposed locations were the boys allowed to go to school. As a result Louis received only about 4 years of schooling during Januaries and Februaries. Later he supplemented this meager formal training with extensive reading.
Father John Otto was a good Dutchman and believed in paying homage to his religion, requiring his family to sit through long prayers and devotions, a practice not understandable to young children wishing to get out and olay with their contemporaries. In spite of irksome prayer time at home, Louis and his brothers hung around local out-of-doors revival meetings enough to become well versed in the hymns which were used, so he could teach them to his daughter later.
Apparently father John Otto was a strict disciplinarian while at work too. Per my father, one day he was berating John Jr. for loafing while tonging. To escape the tirade John Jr. jumped overboard and swam to an oyster lot stake for support. The stake, weakened by torpedo worms, broke off, and John Jr. had no choice but to come back to the boat and face his father, who was armed with a rope's end. As soon as they were able to support themselves all of the boys left home and made their own way in the world.
Louis, and his younger brother Bert, chose to buy their own sailboat and to live on-board her, ice-out to ice-in, while tonging clams in Prince's Bay on the southeasterly side of Staten Island, and selling their catches at the Fulton Fish Market in New York. Somewhere around 1900-1902 Lou fell from the deck into the hold, badly injuring one knee. After months in a hospital on Staten Island, with his knee cap being replaced by a silver plate, he emerged on crutches and with a brace on his leg. Facing insuperable diff~ties in resuming their former life, Lou and Bert returned to Sayville to create a new world for themselves.
The new world emerged as Otto Bros. Retail Coal Sales. They purchased a piece of property on the north side of the Long Island Railroad tracks in Sayville, put in a railroad siding and the necessary bins, and became coal dealers. After about five years Bert decided to become a butcher, worked with brother Tom to learn the business, and set up a butcher store in Bayshore. The coal yard became Louis A. Otto, Coal and Wood, Tel. Conn. 157.
The coal yard continued to operate for many years. Lou created many mechanical coal moving machines to reduce the back-breaking labor normally present, Many of these seemed patentable, but a friend of his in Sayville named Rohm had a valid patent on ,"friction tape". Goodyear and Firestone produced and sold this material without paying royalties, and postponed and delayed the law suits which Rohm threw at them until he ran out of money. Lou did not bother with patents, but soon engineers from Link Belt appeared and went over his machines with measuring tapes (with Lou';s permission) and in a few years had commercial versions of his machines on the market.
During the nineteen teens there were two to six draft horses stabled in the barn behind our house to provide tractive effort to the coal delivery wagons. These were joined by two to four milk cows, two to six pigs, and 25 to 40 chickens. Lou was a frustrated farmer, and harvested hay and grain for his animals from many outlying fields. Our gardens were extensive, with asparagus patches, everbearing strawberries, many rows of peanuts, potatoes, cabbages, brussels sprouts, etc. During WW I we were nearly self sufficient by gardening and canning. Very early in my life I learned to ride my bike to Bayport, West Sayville and Sayville to deliver excess milk from our cows to selected customers.
During the early WW I years Lou became interested in lumbering, and developed a portable saw mill with which he could ";log-off"; the marketable maple, oak, and chestnut on private estates in Smithtown, Ronkonkoma, and South Haven. The increasing difficulty encountered in buying carload lots of coal, unless you had appropriate political connections, led Lou to sell the coal and wood business to Cecil Proctor, a local politician. Thereafter he devoted full time to the saw mill. When US entered WW I he moved the mill to the Patchogue yard of Bailey and Sons, and cut up locust trees into billets for policemans clubs. In November 1918 Lou received ";Greetings from the President"; to report for his army physical, but the end of the war cancelled this.
At the end of the war the saw mill was sold, and the proceeds used to purchase tools and materials for the Cuddle Chair Co. Cuddle Chairs unfortunately did not sell, and the investment was lost, so Lou turned to his first skill, clamming, He built, with the help of his cousin Doodle Otto, a 30 ft. V bottom claming boat, white oak frames, long-leaf yellow pine keel and planking. With this boat he again became a bayman, and with Sylvenus Titus James as a partner, he tonged clams in Great South Bay. One year there was a heavy set of scallops in the bay, so they added a mast, spars, jib and mainsail to the boat and dredged for scallops. Back at home, Louis Leslie Otto and others opened the scallops and prepared them for market. Joseph Weeks joined the team on the boat, and that winter Vene James died. Joe Weeks and Lou Otto clammed for a year or two longer, then came ashore and started a concrete building block business. The plant was at the corner of Lincoln Avenue and Church St., north of Sayville. This business prospered moderately, but in 1930 the breaking of a drag-line cable caused lacerations of Lou's arm, an erysipelas infection, and Lou Otto';s death.
The coal yard established by Lou and Bert Otto around 1902 was purchased by their older brother Tom in the late nineteen twenties and operated by him until his death in 49, and by his two daughters until 1959. About 1915 Louis Ruzicka became a wagon driver and delivery man for my father, and after serving in WW1 returned to the same job. He continued in this capacity for each successive owner, until retiring about 1968.
Lou Otto rarely spent an evening at home. He maintained an office downtown in his brother Tom's butcher store, and roamed Main St., account book in his pocket, to meet his debtors when they had money. Saturdays were pay days then, and nearly everyone went shopping along Main St. that evening, so Lou was busy. His favorite haunt was Jake Stryker's fish market on South Main St., counters in front, fish storage and preparation room in the back, but in between was a lounging room with a card table and a pot-bellied stove. Pinochle was the favorite game. Lou also enjoyed watching baseball, would attend the local town-team games, and would even take his family along in the trusty model T to the out-of-town games.
During his entire adult life ashore Lou was an active member of the Sayville Military Band, playing the helical bass horn. His brother Tom played the baritone horn in this same band, and employee Lou Rnzicka played the Sousaphone. I (LLO) believe that when I was born, as soon as m~ sex was established he went out and purchased an Eb Alto Horn so I could join him in the band. I did join this group at an early age, playing the Eb alto for many years, then switching to the Bb trumpet until leaving for college in 1929.
[Cornelius Otto Descendents 7-18-05.pdf. FTW]
He became partially deaf.
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1874 - 1930 (56 years)
