Friday, December 23, 2011

Stories of the Otto family in Indianapolis

For Christmas I bring you these stories that were passed down to me about the Otto family.  For those of you who've read my earlier blog entry on Alma Rafert Welp you might recognize some of these names. Liz Otto was Alma's mother, so Charles and Lizetta were Alma's maternal grandparents. Liz isn't mentioned much in these stories, but it is an interesting glimpse into the family. Although it's not mentioned here, each Christmas I still make a stollen based on Liz's recipe from over a 100 years ago.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Karl Friedrich "Charles" Otto was on December 27th, 1836 near Dankersen, Germany. He came to America in October of 1856 and settled in Indianapolis, Indiana. He worked as a brick mason, primarily building homes. In 1864 he married Lizetta Menke, who was born on November 1st, 1842 in Osnabruck, Germany. Lizetta had come to America with her parents in 1849 and settled in Jackson County, Indiana. Shortly after their arrival both of her parents died and she and her siblings were put in various homes. By 1860 she was working as a servant in a home in Indianapolis. Charles and Lizetta had thirteen children, although the first three all died before the age of five and another child died at just over a year old. The remaining children were Charley, Liz, Mil, Emma, Will, Nora, Al, Gert, and Art.

Charles was a kind generous and hard working man who could be stern but very fair. His family was very important to him. He taught his three sons, Will, Charles, and Al the building trade and they worked with him. Art, the youngest, was never in good health and could not work with others. But Lizetta always found something for him to do around house and barn to keep him busy and happy. He died at age 21.

Lizetta was said to have the disposition of a Saint. She could be firm, sweet, understanding, laugh a lot and be the peacemaker in any situation. She was a hard worker in her home, taught her daughters how to clean, sew, can, make jellies, bake. She still made time for friends who stopped in and also for her children's friends.

Charles built a lovely brick home for he and Lizetta to move into when they were married. The home was on Oriental Street. For the time they were considered well of as they owned a Sunday buggy and a wagon, plus lace curtains. There was no credit in those days, they paid cash for everything. The girls were never allowed to use the horse and buggy alone but the boys could go ‘a courtin’. The Otto family were all active members of the German Lutheran Church near their home. All of the children attended the German Lutheran school for a short time until the public school was built.

When the children were young and the circus would come to town they would count the days waiting for the big event. Lizetta and Charles would send them all to bed at 7 o’clock, then Lizetta would awaken them at 3AM so they could all go down Oriental Street to the railroad yards where the animals were taken off the train. It was more fun than the circus, just watching them unload.

Lizetta and Charles had house rules and stuck by them, the children had a strict curfew time. All nine children looked after one another and all had their own chores to do. Like in most families there was lots of teasing and arguments, but each would try to cover for another. Emma, Nora, and Gert were grounded a lot. Emma and Nora tied a tin can on a cat’s tail and then placed a fire cracker in can, the cat went wild, they finally threw a bucket of water on the cats tail and never tried that again. Will and his friend Al Giesel, who was staying overnight, snuck into Emma and Nora’s bedroom and poured molasses on their hair braids. Lizetta had to use kerosene to get most of it out, and then used lye soap to wash their hair. Will heard about that for weeks. Emma and Nora tried to get even by loading Will’s bed with dutch cleaner and big metal hairpins, enough was enough and they finally called a halt. It was a known fact that Emma, Nora, and Gert were the clown girls and Will the clown boy.

The Ottos were very frugal people. The boys started working young and one by one the girls went to work until they married. They all paid Lizetta room and board which was reasonably set by Lizetta, but she thought it was a lesson that one can’t live free as an adult while earning a living.

They all loved Christmas and the house was thoroughly cleaned, especially the parlor where the Christmas tree was set up and decorated with great care. Most ornaments were imported from Germany. There was a dollar limit on what one was to spend on each others gift; actually it just covered the cost of a pair of socks for the men and comb for the girls. Lizetta usually received a couple of new aprons made by Emma and Mil. Lizetta and Charles gave each one a couple of dollars and best of all chocolates, a real treat! Lizetta said she was too busy to shop so she made cookies by the “hundreds”. She also made her own mincemeat for pies and cooked her own pumpkin and home made bread of course. They had duck for Christmas dinner as that was Charley’s favorite. The tree was always a large one with candles on the tree of course, but the candles were never burned unless someone was in the parlor. One Christmas Emma, Nora, and Gert knew that Aunt Piel had taken her goodies into the parlor and placed them on and around the tree. They lay awake until late on Christmas Eve then crept downstairs, slowly, opened the sliding doors and were having a feast of “goodies” when they were discovered by there father and straight to bed. On Christmas the girls were told they would not receive their special chocolates because of what had happened. Their brothers and sisters did not tell Pop and Mom, but they shared their chocolates with them. That is how close and loving they were to one another. On Christmas night, while the candles on the tree were burning, the lace curtains caught on fire. Charles broke the window and threw them out as the boys ran for water. Needless to say that ruined the celebration for the whole holiday. Charles told Lizetta not to worry, he would replace her lace curtains but she would have to wait until his next payday. However, all of the children pooled their money and bought Lizetta her new lace curtains.

Charles and his sons worked five days a weeks from 7am to 6pm and Saturday until 3pm. On their way home Charles would stop at the saloon and buy two buckets of beer (10cents a bucket) and proceed home. They would sit around the table while Charles paid the boy for their weeks work and planned for the next week. On Saturday nights those that wished would go to German Lederkrants Hall to dance, drink beer or play cards. Emma, Nora, and Gert met their husbands there, and Will and Charles met their wives.

The Otto family was a very close, loving and caring family, who shared problems and happiness all of their lives.