Ott

Our great-grandfather, John Ott, came to Arkansas in 1856 from Terre Haute, Indiana. He settled in the Blue John Community. Sarah was his wife. They had nine children, four boys and five girls ... Will, Zim, Albert, John, Martha, Liz, Mary, Julia Ann and Mandy. Will married Better Barker. Zim married Mary Galespi. John married Mary Doshier. Martha married Elijah Hall. Liz married Bill Treat. Mary married Sam Reece. Julia Ann married Mac Marriot. Mandy died in infancy. Albert married Catherine McCabe, daughter of Jim McCabe. To this union were born fourteen children. Three died in infancy; they were Bell, Lonnie and Silas. The others are: Fate, Bluford, Mary, Noah, Cleve, Marve, Charlie, Ida, Ernie, Nettie and Henry.

Albert Ott, our grandfather, bought out the heirs who owned the forty acres first settled by his father, John Ott. He then homesteaded eighty acres, joining the homeplace on the east. The Ott Cemetery is on the forty acres first settled by John Ott. He (John Ott) was the second person buried there.

Fate married Judy Laffoon and their children are: Albert, Virgil, Norma, Nora, Andrew and Robert. Bluford married Ella Bundy and they had five children: Lessie, Joyce, Opal, Ethel and Sherman B. Sherman B. still owns the old homeplace. Mary married Wiley Burris and their children are: Owen, Edna, Garland and Thurman. Noah first married Becky Jones and they had one son, Floyd. Later he married Isabelle Jones and they had three children: Howard, Inis and Charles. Floyd married Bess Daffron and they had three children. Howard married Alsey Wagoner and they had two children. Charles married Lorene Hogsed and they were the parents of three children. Inis married Ralph Stuhmiller and they were the parents of a son and a daughter.

Cleve married Ida Baker and they had four children: Ruth, Lester, Ruby and Eual. Marve married Linnie Bundy. Their children are: Jewell, Nellie, Juanita, Jeanette, Claiborne and Nadine. Ida married William Parnell and their children are: Thelma, Vera, Harvey and Wilma Jean (who died at an early age). Ernie married Josie Snipes and they had one son, Gene. Nettie married Lee Medley and they had one daughter, Bessie. Henry married Viola Loman and they had one daughter, Wilma, and one son, Jessie L. He married Goldie Tilley. Charlie married Ethel Bundy and they had one daughter, Hettie. Ethel passed away when Hettie was very young and Charlie later married Oma Doshier. They had two children, Retha and Fred.

Hettie married William Linck in 1930 and to this union were born three children: Sylvia, who married William G. Cunningham and they reside in Rogersville, Missouri, with their two children: Perry Grant and Katherine Leak; Doyle, who married Shirley Cunningham and they live in Flippin with their three children: Dennis Doyle, Edwin Lynn, and Kevin Lee; and Linda, who married Robert Bernard Swaters and they reside in Kansas City, Missouri, with their two children, Jeffrey Robert and Brenna Carol.

Retha married Ray Robison and they have two daughters, Carolyn and Mary Jane. Carolyn married Leland (Butch) Haynes and they had three children: Tammy Renee (who died when six months old); Paula Michelle and Michael Chad. They live in Yellville, Arkansas. Mary Jane married Larry Walker and they live in Yellville with their two children: Matthew Carl and Amy Jane.

Fred married Georgia Lou Horner and they had one daughter, Diane. He later married Willodean Faulkenbeny and they have two boys -- Dwayne and Calvin. They now reside in Claremore, Oklahoma. Diane married Roger Baker and they live in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with their three children: Roger, Jr., Lori and Chris.

Since I grew up at Rush, there is one thing of great importance to me. Our great-grandfather (Jim McCabe) was digging for ore on his own land. Al Setzer was helping him. Two Dutchmen came along and thought the ore they were finding was silver. They built a smelter and ran the ore through it, discovering it was zinc. George Chase came in and organized a company; he built a mill and started mining zinc. Jim McCabe (great-grandfather) named the mine, The Morning Star. This was one of the largest zinc mines in Marion County and was still producing a large quantity of ore when I was growing up. My father (Charlie Ott) used his mules to pull ore cars out of this mine. The mill is torn down and most other buildings at Rush are gone.