BORN IN: Nova Scotia
DIED: 3/13/1886
AGED: 80
DEATH LOCATION: County Farm
PLOT INFO:- Buried in plot: JRB
- Plot JRB is the 'Reserved Block J' Plot
- [View Location]
OBITUARYS:
FAMILY INFO:
BURIED IN UNION CEMETERY WITH THE SAME LAST NAME:
CLOSE RELATIONS BURIED IN UNION CEMETERY:
BURIED NEARBY IN PLOT JRB:
- Brown, Charles (d.1885)
- Cooper, William
- Dunlop, Robert
- Finnigan, Mrs
- Giannini, Stefena
- Gurney, Lizzie
- Neville, Ann Maria
- Nissen, Carl J
- Otterson, Mrs
- Ritchey, Thomas
- Woodward, Harvey
CURRENT EVENTS:- 1831 Reaper (Cyrus McCormick)
- 1836 Revolver (Samuel Colt)
- 1845 Texas annexed into U.S.
- 1846 Mexican-American War
- 1849 California Gold Rush
- 1850 California became the 31st State
- 1860 The Pony Express
- 1861 Abraham Lincoln elected President
- 1861 American Civil War
- 1865 Abraham Lincoln assassinated
- 1866 Ku Klux Klan
- 1869 National Woman Suffrage Assoc.
- 1871 The Great Chicago Fire
- 1876 Telephones (Alexander Graham Bell)
- 1876 Baseball's National League
- 1877 Phonograph (Thomas Edison)
- 1879 Light Bulb (Thomas Edison)
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OBITUARY ---------------JAMES OTTERSON, SR.
1886
James Otterson, Sr. was born in Canada around 1805. After marrying, having children and divorcing his first wife, he arrived in the Illinois River town of Hennepin, Putnam County, Illinois ¡n the early 1840’s. There he married Elizabeth Smith, a widow with several children. The lure of gold brought him to California alone in 1852. His family, including William Short, his wife and young children, joined him a few months later. In 1853 Otterson settled or rather squatted on land near the intersection of the San Francisco-San Jose Road and the road leading from the redwoods to the bay. At this location Otterson built a tavern and hotel which was known as Uncle Jim’s Cabin.
Otterson is given credit for erecting the first building in Mayfield and a plaque has been placed at its approximate site near the corner of El Camino and California Street in Palo Alto.
Uncle Jim’s Cabin was well placed to serve the needs of travelers between San Francisco and San Jose and the business prospered in the 1850’s. In addition, large herds of cattle were frequently driven from the surrounding ranches to the city and the cowboys would stop at the tavern on their way to the market. A huge corral stood behind the tavern. The local butcher also carved up carcasses which hung from a huge oak outside the tavern. In 1855, Otterson was named Postmaster of Mayfield. Unfortunately, when the mail arrived by stage coach he is reported to have taken the pouch and dumped it on a table in the bar and shouted, Come and get it.” This did not please the postal authorities who replaced him with his step daughter Sara Ann Smith. Interestingly, Sarah Ann later married William Page, for whom Page Mill Road is named. James Otterson, Jr. a child of Otterson’s first marriage joined, his father in California around 1859.
Uncle Jim’s Cabin, as a tavern, was the site of recruitment for the Union Army in the Civil War.
Sometime in the late 1850’s James Otterson sold the hotel to a Mr. Crosby. Things did not go well for Otterson or his family. His stepdaughter, Mary Jane Smith Short deserted her husband while he was stationed at Fort Humbolt and left her children in the care of the senior Ottersons.
Elizabeth Otterson died in 1872 and was buried on a knoll on what became the Stanford University Campus. James Otterson, Sr. died at the San Mateo County Poor Farm in 1886 and was buried there. Subsequently, both his and his wife’s remains were moved to the Union Cemetery and placed in the L.O.R.M. Plot.
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