Otis
Otis is the eastern most town in Rush
County. The people who settled in the Otis area were German-Russian
Protestants. Before Otis became a town there was a German Protestant
settlement called Scheuerman to the west and a settlement called
Schoental to the north. German Protestants also lived in Olney,
which was south of the site of Bison. Early groups to come to
the Otis area included the Scheuerman, Brack, Wertz, Appel, Fuchs,
Ochs, Miller, Krumm, Luft, Stang, Steitz, Hergert, Muth, Giesick,
Hartman, Wirtz, Krause, Helin, Repp, Krunch, Ott, Schmidt, Moore,
Rothe, Lebsack, Rudy, Kerb, Avis, Mootz, Rodie, and Sohm families.
Their churches were Methodist, Reformed, and Lutheran.
The Scheuermans were prominent in the
settlement of Otis. Heinrich and Conrad Scheuerman and their wives,
Elizabeth and Catherine and their children arrived in 1876. Anna
Marie Scheuerman immigrated with her mother, Anna Elizabeth (Daubert)
Scheuerman and her brother George Scheuerman and his family. In
April of 1878, Anna married John Rothe who had immigrated with
his father, mother, and two sisters in 1875. Peter and Sophie
Brack, Johannes and Justine Brack, and Philip and Marie Brack
came to the United States in 1876 from Schoenfeldt, Russia. The
oldest Brack brother, Henry, had died in Russia in 1865, but his
wife Elizabeth and their children also came. The Bracks settled
on farms to the north, east, and west of Otis.
Sources
Information
from Judith Reynolds
Algrim, Gene,
et al. Rush County Kansas...125 Years in Story & Pictures.
LaCrosse: The Rush County News and Creative Printing, 2001.
