Jotham Dutton Otterson (1805-1880)

Portrait from the History of the City of Nashua, 1897.

  Long a leading figure in the business and political life of Nashua, New Hampshire, Jotham Dutton Otterson served that city as its mayor from 1869-71 and later served two terms in the state house of representatives from Hillsborough County. The son of James and Martha (Chase) Otterson, Jotham Dutton Otterson was born in Hooksett, New Hampshire on September 11, 1805. Descended from Irish immigrants, young Jotham attended school in Hooksett and later was a student at the Blanchard Academy in the neighboring town of Pembroke.

  Early in his life, Otterson began learning the trades of mechanic and iron molding, being employed in various machinist shops throughout New Hampshire and Massachusetts. By 1833 he had settled in Nashua, and after taking work with the Nashua Manufacturing Company removed to Clinton, Massachusetts, where for several years he held the superintendency of the Lancaster Mills, a large factory complex devoted to the manufacture of cotton and woven gingham fabrics. 

   In 1850 Otterson removed back to Nashua and soon after purchased the Nashua Lock Company, makers of "Locks, Knobs, Escutcheons, Bell Pulls, Butt Hinges, etc." Along with two partners, L.W. Noyes and Robert Living, Otterson remained affiliated with the business until dissolving their partnership, whereafter he established J.D. Otterson & Co., a foundry that by the early 1870s "employed fifty hands and did a business amounting to $60,000." Otterson's eldest son James Parker Scribner Otterson was later admitted as a partner in the business, which continued operations until the elder Otterson's death in 1880. Period sources relate that Otterson was " one of the truly good and generous men of Nashua" as well as a:

"Conservative and practical businessman who paid good wages and took a deep interest in everything that had a tendency to dignify labor and promote the welfare of the laboring man."

  Jotham D. Otterson first married in 1830 to Sarah Emery Scribner (1811-1852), with whom he had eight children, James Parker Scribner (1831-1913), Mary (1833-1915), Lafayette Washington (died in infancy in 1837), Sarah Emery Dana (1838-1906) Nancy Emery (1841-1923), George Washington (1843-1919), Ann Maria (born 1847) and William Henry (died in infancy in 1851). Following Sarah Otterson's death in January 1852 he remarried that December to Athol, Massachusetts resident Lucia Fish (1814-1891), who survived him upon his death.

Portrait courtesy of Find a Grave.

   After years of distinction in New England business circles, Jotham D. Otterson entered the political life of Nashua in 1869, his name being put forward for mayor of that city at the March Republican city caucus. Following balloting, Otterson received 253 votes out of the 376 cast, duly earning the nomination and was subsequently profiled in the March 8, 1869 issue of the Nashua Daily Telegraph, which acknowledged him as a man who:

"Feels a deep interest in the welfare of Nashua, and is always ready to give his influence and aid to every enterprise calculated to advance his prosperity and growth. He richly deserves the honor that has been conferred upon him, and we cannot doubt that those who nominated him for the position of mayor wil see to it that he receives a triumphant election. He is just the man for the place at this time."

From the Nashua Daily Telegraph, March 8, 1869.

   Otterson would win the mayoralty in early March 1869, defeating Democratic nominee J.L. Pierce by a vote of 1,016 to 727. His first year as mayor saw Nashua be visited by President Ulysses Grant in August 1869, and Otterson himself had the honor of presenting the president to the Nashua citizenry at the Concord train depot. Otterson would be renominated for a second term as mayor in March 1870, his first term being noted as one of "marked fidelity and energy." Otterson would emerge triumphant at the polls on March 9th, polling 914 votes to his opponent's 848, and served until March 1871, the Republican nomination for mayor going to another curiously named man, Gilman Scripture (1813-1887), who in turn was defeated by Democrat Dana Sargent.

   Following his mayoralty, Otterson experienced further political success when he was elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives from Hillsborough County, and during the 1873-74 session sat on the house committee on the Judiciary and a special committee on the subject of Temperance. Otterson was returned to the house for a second term, and the 1875-76 session saw him continue service on the judiciary committee and also introduced a bill to "the Worcester and Nashua Railroad to purchase and hold bonds or stock of the Nashua and Rochester Railroad Company."

   Jotham Otterson continued prominence in Nashua after leaving the legislature, being a member of the city's International Order of Odd Fellows chapter, as well as a generous contributor to the Pearl Street Congregational Church, where he was a longstanding parishioner. He died in Nashua on June 2, 1880, aged 74 and was interred alongside his first wife Sarah at the Universalist Church Cemetery in that city.

From the Amherst, New Hampshire Farmer's Cabinet, June 8, 1880.