Mrs. Otto, Believed City's Oldest Resident, Is 103
Observes 103rd Birthday
[Caption: Observing her 103rd birthday today is Mrs. Henry Otto, sr., of 558 S. Fifth Ave., a resident of Ann Arbor for 76 years. Mrs. Otto is believed to be Ann Arbor’s oldest resident.]
Mrs. Otto, Believed City’s Oldest Resident, Is 103
Mrs. Henry Otto, sr., believed to be Ann Arbor’s oldest resident, today is celebrating her 103rd birthday quietly at her home, 558 S. Fifth Ave., where she has resided more than 60 of the 76 years she has lived in Ann Arbor.
Mrs. Otto recalls that when she and her husband build their home, it was one of the first houses in that territory and was in the midst of pasture and swamp land. Where Fingerle’s Lumber Yard is now located, there was a brick yard, and Fifth Ave. was cut from Madison St. to Hill St. to provide a driveway for that brick yard.
The site of the Ann Arbor Fuel Co., located across from the Otto home, was pasture land when the couple moved to their S. Fifth Ave. home.
Born in Gundeshausen, Hesse, Germany, in 1845, Mrs. Otto, the former Margaret Schneider, came to Canada in 1862. She had expressed her desire to come to America when only 16 and her father, a “country gentleman” in Germany bought her the ticket. She made the four-week trip alone and joined two brothers who already were settled in Canada.
She was married to Mr. Otto in 1866 and they came to Ann Arbor in 1872. Mr. Otto was a blacksmith and set up a shop here. His great interest was music and while he could play various musical instruments, his preference was for the violin. It was Mr. Otto who started the well-known Otto’s Band. He died a number of years ago.
Three of the couple’s six children, Henry Otto, jr., 818 Brown St., Mrs. Mary K. Weinberg, 909 Mary St., and George Otto, who resides with his mother, are living. She has 14 grandchildren, 27 great-grandchildren, and 18 great-great-grandchildren. Nearly all of them live in or near Ann Arbor. Two grandchildren have died.
Mrs. Otto, while needing help to move from one room to another, is not confined to her bed and still retains part of her hearing and sight.