MERRILL, Otis, Dr.

OTIS, HALL, HANLEY, STEVENS, RUST, CONNOR, GERMAN, MYERS

Posted By: Roseanna Zehner (email)
Date: 8/11/2004 at 15:45:21

Dr. Merrill Otis

Dr. Otis was born in Holmes County, Ohio, May 16, 1830. When seven years of age he moved with his father’s family to Henry County, Illinois, where he was educated in the common school and at Oxford Academy. At the age of nineteen he entered Rush Medical College of Chicago and read medicine under the English physician, Thomas Hall. He graduated in medicine from the St. Joseph College of Physicians and Surgeons and began the practice of medicine in Henry County, Ia., in 1852. He formed several partnerships in the practice of medicine after he moved to Tabor. The physicians with whom he was associated were Dr. R.R. Hanley, Dr. G.S. Stevens and a Dr. Rust. He began his practice in Tabor in 1866. At the commencement of the Civil War he offered his services with the volunteer corps but was not accepted because the quota had been filled. He served as a member of the county board of supervisors, a member of the state board of registration, and also later had charge of the distribution of the funds of the county. The doctor was married twice. His first wife, Margaret, died in April, 1881, at Tabor, Iowa. In 1889 he was married to Alice Connor of Bartlett, Iowa, who still lives. He acquired considerable property in the town of Tabor, and the surrounding country. He was one of the charter members of the Baptist church at Tabor. A brother, J.C. Otis, was a Baptist minister, and died at Glenwood, Iowa. Another brother, H.W. Otis resided in Red Oak, Iowa. There are three children from his first marriage living; C.M. Otis, Tabor, Iowa; Mrs. Adda German, Persia, Iowa, and Mrs. E.M. Myers, Glenwood, Iowa. A grandson, Dr. Merrill M. Myers, is in the practice of medicine in Des Moines, Iowa. Dr. Otis, died from a septic blood stream infection after four days’ illness on March 17, 1889.

Source: History of Medicine in Iowa by D.S. Fairchild, M.D. 1927