Otis, George Buell

GEORGE BUELL OTIS.—Historically interesting as a member of one of the oldest and most notable families in America, and himself locally distinguished as the last of the four original townsite men who laid out the city of Selma, George Buell Otis, when he breathed his last at twenty minutes after ten on April 30, 1918, both merited and enjoyed the hearty good-will as well as the highest esteem of everyone. To the last he retained his mental faculties; and having been the author himself of some reminiscences of “Early Days,” published in July, 1911, and dealing with the pioneer events of Selma and the surrounding country, he never lost his interest in and advocacy of every responsible movement for the collection and publication of pioneer data and records. He lived on a farm in Santa Clara County when the Stockton and Fresno branch of the Southern Pacific Railroad was built through, and he never forgot the stir that the coming of the iron horse made among the expectant settlers in the sparsely populated district.

Born near Bolton, Vt., on September 16, 1844, George B. Otis lived in that state until 1856, when the family came to California and settled in Sonoma County. They crossed the Isthmus and landed in December of that year at San Francisco, and almost immediately pushed on inland to Sonoma County where the father, having a good deal of the spirit characteristic of the typical Yankee soon acquired land for himself.

It was during the centennial year that George B. Otis came to Fresno County, then a forbidding desert, and having looked over various districts, he took up the northern half of the northwest quarter of Section 8-16 S., Range 22 E., and settled upon it as his homestead. It was rough land at best, and a doubtful project; but he commenced the improvements and little by little worked the transformation for which he was widely known. There was no railroad depot at Selma then, and no switch between Kingsburg on the south and Fowler’s switch on the north; and he was compelled to haul water twenty-two miles from King’s River. It took courage in those days to start anything new involving much labor and expense, for one hadn’t the remotest idea as to where such a beginning or those making it would end. George Buell Otis, E. J. Whitson, Monroe Snyder, and E. H. Tucker had the honor of laying out the original townsite, although since then thirteen additions have been made by subsequent platters; and how the town started is a story of more than passing moment.

The establishing of the Selma Flouring Mill, by Samuel, John and William Frey, and the consequent necessity for a shipping point, were the primary causes for the building up of the new town of Selma, a name selected by Mr. Otis at the suggestion of the Freys. There had been some controversy regarding the best name for the proposed community, and it had finally narrowed down to Dalton, Weymouth, Sandwich and Selma; and on the mill owners’ stating that “Selma” was a name often very fondly used in German Switzerland to denote a beautiful, amiable and sweet-tempered maiden, the gallant Mr. Otis threw his influence in the balance, and “Selma” was the appellation unanimously chosen by the committee and approved by the railroad company. Now there are a dozen post-offices by the same name in as many different states.

The first wells were not very deep, reaching down only about forty or fifty feet, but thanks to efforts of Mr. Otis and others, the water supply has been much increased and improved. The water table has been raised many feet since water from Kings River has been introduced, and now Selma has the cheapest water system on the Pacific Coast, the rate being only seventy-five cents per acre a year. In many ways, as might have been expected from one who was here at the beginning of things, Mr. Otis was identified with the development of the fast-growing town.

George Buell Otis was the son of Albert Hinsdale Otis, a native of Massachusetts and the only child of Joseph and Viola (Hinsdale) Otis, of English ancestry. Albert Hinsdale Otis was reared and educated in Massachusetts, and was graduated from the Wesleyan University, where he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity. His wife was a daughter of Jesse Jewell, one of Bolton’s earliest settlers. In 1838, with his wife, he migrated west to Wisconsin and bought government land at Southport, near what is now Kenosha. He was a circuit-rider in the Methodist ministry; but as the missionary clergy of those days generally had to support themselves from other sources than the church, he followed millwrighting for years, and with success. He improved a farm in Wisconsin, and gave it up to his father, at the same time preparing another home for himself on an adjoining farm. Both sides of the family had interesting forebears. Five children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Albert Hinsdale Otis. One, a daughter Ruby, died in early childhood. Charles Wesley, the eldest, became a teacher; Sarah Anna married George P. Laird; Philo J. was a farmer, having in early manhood been a teacher; and George B. is the subject of this sketch. The father came to California in 1851, and located in Grass Valley. He assisted in putting up the first quartz mill in California, and for some time after that was engaged in mill building. On his way to California, he crossed the great plains; but in 1854 he went back to Wisconsin, this time traveling via the Isthmus of Panama. It was two years later when he brought his family to California and settled down to farming in Sonoma County. When he died, in 1865, he breathed his last on what is now a part of the site of the University of California. Mrs. Otis died in 1887, and both are interred in Petaluma.

After coming to California, George B. Otis took a six months’ course at the University of the Pacific. In 1864 he went to Nevada and followed mining for a time, but not being altogether successful he returned to California—a choice he never regretted—and with his brother purchased 160 acres of land near Petaluma. Having later disposed of the ranch, in 1866 they drove a band of dairy stock to Salinas Valley and there leased a part of a Spanish grant near Castrovillle. They added to their herd and continued dairying for some years with success.

It was at that time and place that Mr. Otis met the lady who became his wife. She was Elizabeth Roadhouse, a daughter of Joseph and Charlotte (Norriss) Roadhouse, and she was born near Stockton on November 20, 1851, and was the first white girl born there. Four children were born to the happy couple. Albert Joseph is proprietor of the Los Angeles Fencing Company, and resides in that city; George Fredron is a well-known bean-grower of Marysville; Elizabeth married Jacob Boehler of Watsonville, and is now deceased; and Earl Norriss is in the real estate business at Selma.

In 1872 the lease of the Otis brothers terminated and they removed to Santa Clara County. There they followed the dairy business, as previously, but four years later they dissolved partnership. It was then that George B. Otis removed to Fresno County, where in time he acquired several hundred acres of land, and also participated, as has been told, in the laying out of Selma. He erected a comfortable home, and he and his family became closely identified with the life of the town.

Mr. Otis was a Republican in national politics, deeply interested in the elevation of the ballot, but was disinclined to accept any public office, although often solicited to be a candidate. In his church affiliations he was an Episcopalian, with broad religious views and responsive sympathies. He had a desire for good schools and became an active spirit in working up a sentiment for the founding of the Selma Union High School District and the organization of the Selma High School. He was also one of the prime movers in the establishment of the Selma Carnegie Library, to which he donated largely both money and books. He laid out South Park Addition to Selma, opened and successfully conducted a real estate office, and was one of the pioneers in the packing of raisins, having built a packing house for his own vineyard and organized the Otis Fruit Packing Company, which he operated for several years. The motto of his life was well expressed in his admonition, “Be sincere in your undertakings and absolutely honest in all your transactions,” and he lived up to this ideal to the letter. He was one of the six charter members of Selma Lodge, No. 309, I. O. O. F., where he had passed through all the chairs, and when his funeral took place from St. Luke’s Episcopal Church on May 2, 1918, that fraternity conducted short services at the Odd Fellows’ Cemetery. He was seventy-three years, seven months and fourteen days old when he died, and was counted one of the really distinguished citizens of Selma and of Fresno County.