Ferdinand George
and Florence Ott
History of
Kentucky and Kentuckians, E. Polk Johnson, three volumes,
Lewis Publishing Co., New York & Chicago, 1912. Common version, Vol. III,
pp. 1209-10. (Campbell County)
One of Dayton's substantial citizens and prosperous business men is Ferdinand
George Ott, who is engaged in the drug business.
He was born on a farm near Lanesville, Indiana, July 12, 1857, but is of foreign
extraction. His parents were Bernhard and Pauline (Neuman) Ott, the former
a native of Wurttemberg and the latter of Prussia, Germany, who came to the
United States when young and located in Newport, Kentucky. Pauline was the
daughter of George and Christina Newman. It was in that city
that they were married, and not long after their union
they located upon a farm near Lanesville, Indiana, and for a number of years
engaged in its cultivation.
Children of Bernhard and Pauline Neuman
1. Ferdinand Ott b-12
July 1857 in Lanesville Indiana
2. Otto Ott b-19 Nov 1858 in Lanesville Indiana; d-23 Nov 1937 in Dayton Ky. br-St
Stephen Cemetery; m-Ella
3. George Ott b-1866 in Newport
4. William Ott b-Jan 1868 in Newport; d-6 July 1869 in Newport; br-St Stephen
Cemetery
5. Pauline Ott b-1870 in Newport;
6. Amelia Mary Ott b-29 Oct 1874 in Cincinnati; d-8 Nov 1950 in Dayton Ky. br-St
Stephen Cemetery; m-Leo Rackers
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In 1862 they returned
to Newport, where they passed the remainder of their lives, the demise of the
father occurring when he was seventy-three years of age and that of the mother
when she was sixty-four. This estimable couple were the parents of ten
children, five of whom grew to maturity. At the time of the Civil war the
father was a member of the old home guards.
Ferdinand George Ott, who was the eldest of his
father's large family, was five years of age when his parents located in Dayton.
He attended the public schools for a time and owing to straitened circumstances
very early in life found it necessary to face the problem of earning a living.
His first position was as a bell boy in the old Gibson Hotel in Cincinnati.
His future work was no doubt determined by the fact that when he was fourteen
years old he found a position of humble character with a drug store in
Cincinnati and followed this with several similar positions.
He found the work so congenial and proved so apt in picking up the details that the question of a vocation in life was settled without much difficulty. He entered the Cincinnati College of Pharmacy and was graduated from this institution in 1882. He was thrifty and an excellent manager and after clerking for about one year he found himself in a position to go into business for himself, and so bought a drug store in Dayton. Three years later he sold out and for the thirteen years following worked in stores in Covington, Cincinnati and Newport.
In 1905 he bought his
present drug business in Dayton and has ever since carried it on with
the utmost success. Mr. Ott is a socialist in politics, has always taken an
active
interest in the cause and believes in it triumphant future. He was one of
the original members in an organization known as the Dayton's Men's Club, a
civic organization which has done a great deal for the improvement and
advancement of the city and which has an active membership of about one hundred
at the present time. He is an enthusiastic Mason, a member of the blue
lodge and senior deacon of the Henry Barnes Lodge, No. 607.
The marriage of Mr. Ott to Miss Florence L. Davidson, a
native of Springfield, Ohio, was celebrated February 10, 1891. She was
born 10 Feb 1859,
reared and educated in Springfield, where the father, Otho Davidson, engaged in
the cooper's trade and lived until his demise. Her mother, Laura Savilda
(Black) Davidson, was a lineal descendant of John Quincy Adams. Her death
occurred in Cincinnati. Mr. and Mrs. Ott have one child, a daughter,
named Laura Elizabeth, twelve years of age.
Child of Ferdinand
George Ott and Florence Black Davidson
1. Laura E Ott b-June 1898 in
Cincinnati; d-10 Aug 1961 in Cincinnati
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Ferdinand Ott died 25 July 1917 in Dayton Ky. and was buried in Spring Grove Cemetery. Florence Black Ott died 2 Dec 1925 in Dayton Ky. and was buried in Spring Grove Cemetery.