| Notes |
- Copied from [Cornelius Otto Descendents 7-18-05.pdf. FTW]
Notes on the Otto and Hage Families by Belle Otto Terry (BOT)
Note: Louis L Otto, brother of Belle finished manuscript (LLO) John Otto became very deaf and he had a hand tremor (familial palsy).
Note 17 Cornelius and Johanna Baker Otto came to West Sayville from Holland in 1852, with their four sons, and settled in West Sayville on Atlantic Avenue. Cornelius was a fisherman. He and his wife were charter members of the Dutch Reformed Church when it was formed in 1860. Three of their sons married three sisters, Nell, Cornelia, and Maria Hage.
Many of the descendants of this couple continued to live on the south shore of Long Island. In the late 1920’s and early 193O’s, the women of the third generation, with our Grandma Otto, used to get together two or three times a year for which I called a “Cousin party”. I always hoped there would be one while I was home on vacation. There is in the Hage family line an ability to tell a story well. These parties were hilarious affairs because so many good family anecdotes would be told and retold. Much of what I know about my father’s cousins came from these delightful tea parties. Among those usually present were Grandma Otto, Aunt Anna Tinner, Aunt Nellie’s group (Jane Otto Otto, Westerbeke, Rogers, Mantha, Skinner, and Phanemiller), Josephine Terry Fitzgerald, and Alice Isles, Annie Seerveld Brown and Minnie Dykstra, and my mother (who only married into the family), and sometimes I (BOT) was there.
Note 18 John and Cornelia Hage Otto
They owned an acre of ground with a house, barn, and old trees facing Greene Avenue and running thru to Greeley Ave. John Otto was “bent on the bay”, but he was also a farmer and cultivated land beside his house. The northwest corner of this land was subsequently sold to his son Louis A. Otto, and became our land at 79 Greeley Ave. The Greeley Avenue edge of the property was lined with silver maples which John Otto had planted.
John Otto was apparently a stern and religious father. Morning prayers were held each day while his sons chafed to be out and play. He became very deaf, a problem transmitted to his son John Jr. and his daughter Anna (both totally deaf by age 20), the latter’s son, Herbert Parkhill, and to his other sons Louis and Thomas, both partially deaf by young manhood. John Otto was also the source of the hand tremor which has plagued some of his descendants. He must have been a tall man, since all of his children were tall, even though their mother was short.
Cornelia Hage Otto was the daughter of Cornelius and Minna Hage (see note 8), coming to Oakdale with her parents in 1849 at the age of 5. She was a story teller, telling many tales of her childhood (see note 8). After her marriage to John Otto they settled in their home on Greene Avenue. Grandmother wanted to travel, but Grandfather did not, so they didn’t. John Otto died in May, 1905, and Grandmother was free to go. By July she was on her way back to Bruinissee, in Holland, her birthplace, intending a long visit. However, Holland was cold, and Grandmother was cold-blooded, so she soon came back home to get warm. Thereafter she traveled whenever half an opportunity presented itself. If she learned that you planned a day’s trip to New York, she would say “I will be ready”. Ready she was, an hour ahead of time, and fretting because you’re not there yet to pick her up. She spent several summer holidays near the Choptank River in eastern Maryland, where she had been as a girl, reveling in the hot Eastern Shore summer. Grandmother was a stickler for Victorian propriety, but withdrew objections to my pajamas (dreadful innovations ) when convinced the flannel would keep my childish legs warm. She repeatedly made sun bonnets for me to protect me from the sun because I tanned so readily. This she considered woman unladylike;
Grandma Otto was a small woman (apparently like her mother), with dark hair. She was a poor cook, having little interest in it. My father went to great lengths after his marriage to avoid eating a meal at his mother’s table. She was a quilt maker, and made fine quilts for each grandchild. However, she made them to fit her own small frame, while her grandchildren were all tall.
note 19 John Otto Jr. (1867 -1931) was the eldest son and second child of John and Cornelia Hage Otto. He was afflicted with wanderlust, taking off at an early age. As a telegraph operator he moved all over the west and into some foreign countries. At one point, for a period of 48 hours, he owned the heart of what was to become downtown Seattle, it was One in one poker game and lost in another. After his marriage he settled in Brooklyn, N.Y., and after retirement, in Sayville.
note 20
Cornelius Otto and Aunt Rose lived in a house on lower Colton Avenue in Sayville. He never in my (LLO) memory came to our house. He was captain of an oyster steamer for the Bluepoints Company, which owned all of the bay bottom, mainland to beach, from Bluepoint on the east to Nicoll’s Point on the west, and would let no one else catch clams or oysters from it. When he retired from the company they allowed Uncle Case and another retiree to clam on their land (selling the clams to Bluepoint only). One November morning Case and his partner came down to their boat to go out to work. Uncle Case went below into the cabin to light the stove, his partner went to the forward deck to clear anchor and mooring lines. There was a terrific explosion, partner was blown overboard into the water and survived. The cabin structure went straight up into the air, then descended onto Uncle Case, crushing him. Moral: Diesel engines only for me.
The following is an excerpt from FTM Book “CHILDHOOD REMEMBRANCES OF OAKDALE, LONG ISLAND, MY BIRTHPLACE By Alimina Hage Terry”
“At the Benjamin homestead where the late Jacob Ocker’s house is now on the little hill, Mr. Phillip Benjamin died. The law had just been passed that there would be no burying on the premises so they called on my mother to prepare him for burial. She felt rather timid, but it was only the first of many who came to her and were never refused. This was the first person buried in Union Cemetery of Sayville where now it would be difficult to count them in the seventy-nine years gone by. And so the good work went on in spite of more troubles and anxieties which might have filled the thoughts of a less hearted woman.
Not many came to Oakdale in the fifties but after about four or five years went by a man whose name was Mr. Peck came to Oakdale and started a charcoal manufacturing plant midway between Oakdale and Bohemia, bringing several families with him. They loved to be near their work and built themselves little huts made of branches of trees set up in a conical style or shape, covered with sod. They were from ten to fifteen feet high and had no windows or chimneys and resembled a rustic copy of army tents. It proved an unfortunate venture and as their means were limited they suffered much privation. Some were taken sick and as they were unacquainted it was a trying time for them.
Mrs. Benjamin and my mother went to their aid, taking a supply of butter, eggs, milk and ham and other necessities to make them comfortable. Silas Hulse took them and they stayed three days to make sure they were on the road to recovery. A short time afterwards our good friends left for the West and were never heard from again.
Other families from Brunisse were now coming to Oakdale, some working on the Bay and others employed by my father on the farm. He also employed many Bohemians who held him in great respect, believing “good masters make good servants”; and very true are its words. He had inherited love for peace and all created things, human beings and animals.
There were eight sisters, myself being the seventh. Mrs. John Otto and two youngest still living. The older ones had their share of farm work, going for the cows a long distance near the residence of the late F.G. Bourne, who has done so much to beautify Oakdale. It was no uncommon thing to get chased by foxes or snakes. At one time three snakes were sunning themselves under a tree. Thinking them asleep, we passed by but on looking back we saw them coming after us, their tails in their mouths, rolling like a hoop. They pursued us some distance but finally gave up the chase.
Things were going on in good order and they had no more longings or homesick feelings for their beloved Brunisse. In receiving papers and letters, they were informed of their relatives welfare and so time went on. By reading the papers they were now interested in the great affairs of the day, such as the laying of the Atlantic cable. No attempt had been made toward the great achievement until 1854, but it had been discussed many years. The laying of the cable was begun in 1857 but not completed until 1858 when a message was sent to Queen Victoria and she returned a message to President Buchanan. Observe what progress has been made with our wireless telegraphy and many other ways of sending messages and the wonderful invention of Thomas Edison. His electrical appliances have given us our electric light and made it possible to utilize electrical power in innumerable branches of industry.
They were also interested in the Crimean War where the brave Florence Nightingale did so much to alleviate the suffering of the soldiers. She lived to see the result of her work and her methods adopted in the days when she chose for herself the life of loving service. She died in 1910.
The people of Oakdale were the old fashioned Methodists. They would hold meetings in the little red school house which all would attend. They would sit with closed eyes and suddenly rise and shout and were very much in earnest and serious. We attended St. John’s Episcopal Church. Nevertheless we were impressed by their earnestness and our parents never discouraged us.
It happened that a Holland family from Rochester, by the name of Otto, came to Oakdale and settled at Great River. It was then called Youngport. A brother, Cornelius Goldsworth, had preceded them a short time before. They also landed at Lakeland and naturally stopped at the old farmhouse to inquire the way to Great River.
There were five brothers, John, Edward, Leonard, Thomas, and Henry Otto. There was one sister, the first wife of the late Wolfer Van Popering. At first, they did farm work but the oyster industry was getting so prosperous that they did much better by changing. From the time they reached Oakdale they were frequent visitors at the Hage farm.
There were so few families and also none with so many girls so the two oldest married into the Hage family. John and Edward married the two oldest daughters, Neltje and Cornelia. Several years after Henry married Maria. Neltje and Cornelius were now settled and very happy living in Oakdale for many years, afterwards coming to Sayville. The men took to the water and with industry and courage combined they had few disappointments. They were a strong sturdy set of men with wonderful strength, also of character, and with loyalty too their obligations.
Some time went by, about ten or twelve years. My father sent transportation for Ira Bebee to come to America, Mrs. Bebee being my mother’s sister. The money reached there but they dated not risk the journey. A few years after they again wished to come but when the money reached there again they dated not come until the third time when they left their beloved Burnisse. Mr. Bebee carried on the oyster business at the foot of Foster Avenue for many years; his sons carried on after his death.
My Aunt Hannah was a mild and amiable woman possessing great patience and idolized by her children. She died early in life at her home in Sayville beloved by her friends and relatives. Henry Ocker’s, also with his sons, carried on the oyster business, Jacob doing it so extensively that they named him the oyster king. His brother Frederick also did the work of oystering”
.Obituary –
John Otto, one of Sayville's aged and most respected residents, died at his home on Green Avenue early on Sunday morning from Bright's disease, in the 74th year of his age. He was a native of Holland, but came to the United States when a young man and forty-eight years ago settled in this village. He at once began the occupation of a bayman and tilled a little farm during spare moments. Being of a thrifty, ambitious nature, he soon acquired sufficient capital to go into the oyster planting business more extensively and was very successful. About ten years ago, however, he retired from the bay, although he was interested in the oyster business for some time thereafter. About that time he assisted his two sons, Thomas and Bertram (Bertrand?) to establish the well-known firm of Otto Bros. who have built up a very prosperous meat, poultry, and provision business in this village and who are also successful coal merchants, having associated with their brother, Lewis, with them in this latter undertaking. In these various enterprises, the elder Mr. Otto took an active interest and until the past six months lent valuable aid. Blessed with a fine physique and a rugged constitution, until last autumn it was his proud boast that he had never been ill a day in his life, and had never taken medicine of any kind. Then his strength began to fail and he gradually grew weaker until in January he was given up by his physicians who thought he could not live through the day, but they did not reckon on his wonderful vitality which enabled him to get up and around again, but a dread disease had fastened upon him and on Sunday morning he passed on to his reward. The deceased was a very religious man, a close student of the Bible and a man of strict integrity. He was quiet and unassuming, but fearless and determined. "When he put his hand to the plow, he never turned back." He is survived by a widow, who like himself was a native of Holland but whom he married 40 years ago. Her maiden name was Cornelia Hage. They have five sons, John E., Cornelius, Thomas N., Lewis and Bertram and one daughter Mrs. Anna Tinner. The deceased also leaves three brothers, Henry and Thomas Otto of West Sayville, and Edward Otto of Yonkers. The funeral services were held on Tuesday afternoon from the M. E. Church of which he was a regular attendant. The pastor, the Rev. H. S. Still, officiating, assisted by the Rev. E. S. Schilstra of the Dutch Reformed Church of West Sayville. Interment was in the Union Cemetery.
(Suffolk County News (Sayville, Friday, May 26, 1905
Page: 2)
Found on Find a grave- under John Otto, Union Cemetery, Sayville, NY
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1833 - 1905 (72 years)
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