Otis Family

The Otis family of Lee, New Hampshire

The first Otis family in America left Glastonbury, England in the 1600s and settled on Cape Cod. A branch of the family later relocated to the Dover, New Hampshire area headed by Richard Otis in 1655. It was from this line of Otis' that our family is related. Few families in New Hampshire suffered more from the constant and cruel attacks of the Indians, than the family of Richard Otis. He himself, with one son and one daughter were killed in 1689, his wife and child captured and sold to the French in Canada. At the same time a number of his grandchildren were carried captives; and a few years after, some of his children and grandchildren were killed, and others made prisoners of the Indians. They lived in constant peril and alarm, their houses were fortified for defense against the Red man, and in their acts of devotion, they carried their arms in their hands.

The surviving generations later settled in Lee, Madbury, Somersworth, Rollinsford, Newington, all differenct sections of the town of Dover, New Hampshire. Our great grandfather, Sylvanus Hilton Otis, was the son of Thomas Jefferson Otis, whose father was Simon Otis.

Sylvanus was born in Lee, NH and was a Supervisor at the local Mill in Dover, NH. He later relocated to Canton, Massachusetts, where he met his second wife, Sarah Weed. Both were employed at the Draper Mills plant, where Sylvanus was her boss.

The Sylvanus Otis family bought property on Turnpike Street near the Grange Hall, where they raised a family of six daughters (Olive, Sadie, Consuela, Flora, Mary, and Hazel) and one son (Thomas), who died young in 1918 of influenza, leaving a wife and son. Our grandmother was Consuela (Connie) Otis, who later married Leroy Harrison Tinkham of the Middleboro, MA dairy family. Leroy and Connie had two daughters, Grace and Hazel. Hazel married Charles Albert Kunkel of Readville, and Grace married Raymond Chandler of Dedham.

The pictures below are of the early Otis family in Lee, NH and their descendants.