Timeline of Otis Sanctuary History
1855--Paul
Otis homesteads around Otis Lake. Paul's sons, Parshall Otis (Bob
Otis's grandfather), Philander and Feril, begin homesteading the
soutwest part of Rutland Township around Otis Lake and Glass Creek.
1866-- Frederick Otis, Father of Robert Otis, born in Schultz, Michigan
1867--Luella (Havens) Otis born
1874-- Glass Creek Grange Organized. Philander Otis was Treasurer.
1880--Parshall Otis family move to current location of Otis Sanctuary
1886--Frederick Otis and Luella Havens married, takes over farm from father, Parshall.
1887--Izolo Otis, Robert Otis' oldest sibling, born
1911--Robert Otis born, last of twelve children
1914--Mildred (Otis) Guensch born
1951--Robert and Mildred married
1950 -- Luella (Havens) Otis passes away
1951--Frederick Otis passes away
1952-Robert Otis takes possession of deceased father's farm
1996--Robert Otis passes away
2000--Mildred Otis passs away
2001--Robert and Mildred Otis Trust deeds land to Michgian Audubon for a sanctuary
2002--Grand Opening of the Robert and Mildred Otis Sanctuary.
2002--Thomas Funke hired as first Resident Manager.
2003--Our first membership meeting, hiking trails open
2004--Cabin fully functional, barn cleaned out. $80,000 contribution to sanctuary from the Angel Bauer Trust.
2005--Otis Family Reunion held at sanctuary.
Excerpted from "Barry County History"
The Otis's of Glass Creek
Author and date unknown.
Around
1855 three Otis brothers, Feril, Philander, and Parshal came to Glass
Creek in South West (sic) Rutland Township. Of all their hundreds
of descendants, only Robert H (Bob) Otis, grandson of Parshal and son
of Fred and Luella Otis, still lives in the area, on the family
farm. Gone are the fine, big houses built by Feril and Philander,
their farms now part of the State Game Peserve, their large families
scattered. The name lives on in Otis Lake and Otis Lake
Road. The site of the old Otis Schoolhouse is lost in second
growth forest.
Parshal
Otis did not settle down immediately but worked in the lumber camps
north of Grand Rapids. In time he married Betsey Foreman by whom
he had four sons: Fred (our father), Clarence, Delbert, and Ray.
They lived on Otis Lake Road, the spot marked now only by a great,
spreading lilac bush.
In
1880 they moved east of Glass Creek to a farm consisting of a great
marsh along the creek, the rest glacial hills. Here, in 1886, our
father married Luella Havens and took on the farm, the mortgage, and
the care of his aging parents. And here their children were born,
all twelve of them.
It
was against the advice of his anxious uncles that our father determined
to make a go of farming those hills. But he loved that marsh and those
hills and they were his.
In
the early years he taught country school in the winter term, and he
could always add to the merger (sic) farm income doing things for
neighbors, which they couldn't. He could hang paper, work with
concrete, butcher, ---whatever was needed. He was a good salesman
too, and he sold hand powered washing machines, home lighting
equipment, milking machines, furnaces, silos, and plaster, stock in
several creameries.
Fred
Otis was a good farmer, and because he respected the land it cooperated
with him. With good farm practices he built up his soil until it
produced crops of which he could be, and was, proud.
Bob,
like his father, loves the marsh and the hills and all the creatures
that live there. He, too, was a good farmer but gave it up to be
a carpenter and skilled worker with wood.
