California Biographies 

Source:
History of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura Counties, California
by: C M Gidney - Santa Barbara. Benjamin Brooks - San Luis Obispo. 
Edwin M Sheridan - Ventura
Volumes II - Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, ILL., 1917

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


ADAM OTT. One of the oldest business men of Santa Barbara is Adam Ott, president of the Ott 
Hardware Company. Mr. Ott has been a resident of California almost half a century and by 
close attention and methodical management of his affairs he has long enjoyed financial 
independence.
He was born in a village along the river Rhine in Germany, June 6, 1847. He was reared and 
educated in Germany and in May, 1867, at the age of twenty started for America. In July of the 
same year he landed in California, having come out by way of the Panama route. From the first 
he has been identified with some branch of the hardware business and its related trade, and in 
1875 entered business independently at Santa Barbara as a member of the firm of Roever & 
Ott. After twenty-nine years of active partnership with Mr. Roever the latter retired, and Mr. 
Ott then incorporated the firm of Ott Hardware Company. He is president of the company, 
Charles Ott, his son, is vice president, and Tom George is secretary. Mr. Ott has always 
confined his business affairs and other interests rather strictly to Santa Barbara. To the best of 
his judgment and time and opportunity he has worked for the upbuilding of that city. He is a 
member of many clubs and social organizations, being affiliated with the Independent Order of 
Odd Fellows, the Masonic order, in which he has attained the Knight Templar degree, and 
membership in the Mystic Shrine, and belongs to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
On July 24, 1872, at Martinez, Contra Costa County, California, Mr. Adam Ott married Mary 
Isabelle Davis. Mrs. Ott's parents were Scotch people and her father was at one time 
superintendent of coal mines. Mr. and Mrs. Ott have three children : Jeanette, who married 
William Murphy ; Bella, wife of F. Nelson ; and Charles Ott, who is unmarried.