Theodore Weld (TW) Otis was a prominent and well-respected Prescott pioneer who served the community as a judge, a coroner, and a postmaster. He speculated in mining, real estate, and was a retail proprietor. He was a pious, charitable Christian and a teetotaling advocate for prohibition.
He was born September 6, 1835, in Bath, New York. After graduating from Oberlin College in 1865, he fought valiantly in the Civil War. Later, he met and married Pamela Libbey in 1869.
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| Pamela Libby Otis |
Their only child, Mary Kate, was born in New York in 1870. They moved to Los Angeles two years later. In 1874, the family left in a covered wagon filled with groceries and drawn by a six-mule team. One month later, they pulled into Prescott, where Otis met HV Cram, who took him in as a partner in his "Variety" store on the north side of the Plaza.
Otis quickly became a well-regarded and popular citizen. In September 1875, he was appointed Postmaster of Prescott. President US Grant appointed him "for his military service during the Civil War as a soldier," the Miner reported, and Levi Bashford provided him the necessary bond. The following month, the Post Office was moved into the Cram and Otis Variety store. He soon became known as the Psalm-Singing Postmaster of Prescott.
Eventually, Cram and Otis would go their separate ways in April 1876, with Otis maintaining the Variety store and Post Office, while Cram started a photography studio on Cortez St.
When the newspaper cited shortcomings with the mail that Otis largely inherited, he wrote a letter in response, explaining the reasons for each problem and what he intended to do to solve them.
When he was reappointed in November 1879, the paper described him as "our efficient P.M." When he left the position in 1884, the Arizona Champion of Mohave County wrote: "Exit TW Otis, the most proficient slave to the postoffice department Arizona has yet produced."
Otis quickly rose into leadership at the Presbyterian Church in Prescott, being elected Elder in 1876. He taught Sunday School to the Chinese children of the town. In 1884, Otis was named second vice-president for the Arizona Sunday School Union. In 1896, he joined the Congregational Church in Prescott and quickly became the Sunday School Superintendent there. Later that year, he was elected President of the Arizona Sunday School Convention.
In 1877, he was elected Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the library. Two months later, he was appointed to the Board of Examiners for incoming teachers. In 1885, he and Prescott’s future "Man of the Century," Mayor Morris Goldwater, partnered to examine the prospective teachers in Yavapai County. The pair also teamed as election judges that year.
Otis began to invest in mining and was named to the Mining Committee in 1887. He was General Manager and main stockholder in the Logan Mining Company located between Copper Canyon and Skull Valley.
He had a profound effect on the buildings across from the Plaza on Cortez St. He built the Otis Building, which housed his grocery store at the corner of Union St. and other business tenants. Additionally, he built a barn and carriage house, and buildings for Wells Fargo and Dr. Warren Day's office.
In 1888, he bought a large parcel of land east of downtown, which came to be known as the "Otis Addition,” and began to sell lots at affordable prices.
However, disaster would strike that same year when his store caught fire. In the early morning hours of July 1, “a disastrous conflagration” began in the rear of Otis’ store. Before it was discovered, it “had already made great headway…[and] an immense volume of smoke was pouring forth from every crack and crevice of the building as well as from the one adjoining it,” the Weekly Journal-Miner explained. Eventually, only two buildings remained standing on the east side of the Plaza.
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1888: Prescott’s Great Fire Before the Great Fire
The story of the July 1, 1888, disastrous fire that destroyed Cortez Street in Prescott, AZ.
With help from local merchants, he rebuilt and restocked his store. In June 1895, he quit the grocery business, auctioning off its inventory to focus on mining and real estate. When Prescott considered building a smelter in 1888, Otis offered to donate 10 acres of land for the site, though the plan never came to fruition. Part of Prescott's Citizens' Cemetery was donated by Otis.
In 1895, Otis and Rev. McLean began a school for the Chinese men in Prescott, located on Granite Street. Mrs. Elizabeth Clark Fisher and Rev. McClain’s sons also helped teach them.
Theodore and Pamela Otis fostered and raised three orphans of the Oliver family, as well as a young Chinese woman who was an indentured servant, Jun Moy, who escaped from her cruel master. Money was set aside for their future education.
Otis' wife passed away from cancer in 1911. Later that year, Otis ran for Governor for the Prohibitionists party. He received only 79 of the 21,615 votes cast and came in fourth.
As his health declined, he moved to his farm in Mesa while his surviving daughter took possession of her childhood home on Pleasant St. In mid-January 1916, Otis suffered "a slight attack of paralysis.” Before the month ended, he had passed away at age 81. His daughter went to his farm to bring him to her house, but they were delayed in their departure due to flooding, and TW passed away before they could depart on January 25, 1916.
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SOURCES:
Weekly Arizona Miner, 12/31/1874; Pg. 4, Col. 1.
Weekly Arizona Miner, 7/30/1875; Pg. 3, Col. 2.
Weekly Arizona Miner, 10/15/1875; Pg. 3, Col. 2.
Weekly Arizona Miner, 6/2/1876; Pg. 2, Col. 2.
Weekly Arizona Miner, 8/11/1876; Pg. 1, Col. 2.
Weekly Arizona Miner, 8/18/1876; Pg. 2, Col. 2.
Weekly Arizona Miner, 1/12/1877; Pg. 4, Col. 1.
Weekly Arizona Miner, 3/23/1877; Pg. 4, Col. 3.
Weekly Arizona Miner, 11/7/1879; Pg. 3, Col. 2.
Arizona Champion, 4/12/1884; Pg. 2, Col. 1.
Weekly Arizona Miner, 11/5/1875; Pg. 3, Col. 3.
Weekly Journal-Miner, 2/2/1916; Pg. 3, Col. 5.
Weekly Arizona Miner, 11/6/1876; Pg. 2.
Weekly Arizona Republic, 4/3/1884; Pg. ,4 Col. 3.
Weekly Arizona Miner, 2/27/1885; Pg. 4, Col. 1.
Weekly Arizona Miner, 6/26/1885; Pg. 3, Col. 5.
Weekly Journal-Miner, 11/23/1887; Pg. 4, Col. 1.
Weekly Journal-Miner, 1/11/1888; Pg. 3, Col. 7.
Weekly Journal-Miner, 1/31/1880; Pg. 3.
Weekly Journal-Miner, 9/12/1888; Pg. 3, Col. 7.
Weekly Journal-Miner, 8/21/1889; Pg. 3.
Weekly Journal-Miner, 6/1/1892; Pg. 1.
Weekly Journal-Miner, 5/26/1895; Pg. 5, Col. 8.
Weekly Journal-Miner, 2/19/1896; Pg. 1, Col. 8.
Arizona Republic, 8/20/1896; Pg. 5.
Weekly Journal-Miner, 4/27/1910; Pg. 7, Col. 2.
Weekly Journal-Miner, 9/27/1911; Pg. 5, Col. 2.
Weekly Journal-Miner, 2/7/1912; Pg. 5, Col. 1.
Weekly Journal-Miner, 8/26/1914; Pg. 6.
