The History of the Yakima Valley, Washington, Comprising Yakima, Kittitas and
Benton Counties, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1919, Volume II, page 931 

MORTIMER SCOTT OTIS.

Mortimer Scott Otis, engaged in the cultivation of fifty-two acres of ranch
property in the vicinity of Grandview, was born in Glenwood, Iowa, October 1,
1872, a son of Timothy B. and Mary H. (Haynes) Otis. The father was born in
Marietta, Ohio, and the mother in Terre Haute, Indiana. The former was a son of
Barnabas H. Otis, a native of Massachusetts, who became one of the pioneer
residents of Ohio, where he was once known as "the strong man" of the state. He
weighed two hundred and fifty-five pounds and was a man of great physical
prowess. He was also prominent as a leader in public thought and opinion in his
community and was chosen a delegate to the republican convention which nominated
Abraham Lincoln for the presidency. The ancestral line is traced still farther
back through Stephen H. Otis, the great-grandfather, to General James Otis, who
was a member of the famous Boston Tea Party that, resenting the tax placed upon
tea by England, made their way to the ship and threw the tea overboard into the
waters of the harbor. He won his title by active service as commander of
American troops in the Revolutionary war, and his son, Stephen H. Otis,
manifesting the same spirit of patriotism, served as an officer in the War of
1812. Again the patriotic strain of the family was dominant at the time of the
Civil war, when Timothy B. Otis espoused the cause of the Union and went to the
front in defense of the stars and stripes. General Harrison Grey Otis, now
deceased, and in the latter part of his life a resident of Los Angeles,
California, was a first cousin of Timothy B. Otis and maintained the established
reputation of the family for valor and loyalty in military connections, his name
figuring very prominently upon the pages of history. Timothy B. Otis was a
carpenter by trade and after spending his youth and early manhood in Ohio
removed to Iowa in the spring of 1866. In the latter part of the '90s he
established his home in New Mexico, where his remaining days were passed, his
death occurring in 1913. His widow, however, still survives.

Mortimer Scott Otis, after acquiring a public school education, took up the
carpenter's trade and became a thorough workman along that line. His first
removal westward took him to Colorado in 1901 and the year 1907 witnessed his
arrival in Seattle, Washington. He has made his home in Yakima county since
1910, at which time he purchased an interest in twenty-two acres of land near
Sunnyside. He has since acquired thirty acres near by and is today the owner of
an excellent ranch property of fifty-two acres, of which he has twenty-two acres
planted to orchards, which are now in excellent bearing. The remainder of his
land is utilized for the raising of diversified crops and hay and his place is
improved with a good residence and substantial barns. In fact a spirit of
progress and enterprise actuates him in all that he undertakes and he has gained
recognition as one of the representative ranchers of his section of the state.

On the 31st of December, 1896, Mr. Otis was married to Miss Elizabeth Snow, of
Emerson, Iowa, a daughter of J. W. and Mary (Rhodes) Snow. Their marriage has
been blessed with three children: Marion Harold, Edith and Walter, all yet at
home. Mr. Otis is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America. He votes
independently and belongs to the Non-Partisan League. He has served on the
school board and the cause of education finds in him a stalwart champion. He
gives active aid and support to all measures and movements for the public good
and his cooperation can be counted upon to further any project that is looking
toward the best interests of the community or which seeks to promote civic
virtue and civic pride.

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Submitted to the Washington Bios Project in January 2008 by Jeffrey L. Elmer.
Submitter has no additional information about the subject of this article.