Dr. Bodo Otto and other ancestors

Dr. Bodo Otto was mentioned in a previous post so thought I should tell who he was and about his role in the formation of our country. I learned about my connection to Dr. Otto twenty or so years ago. The Bodo Otto Family Association was established to honor Dr. Bodo Otto by his descendants. You can learn more about him by going to the webpage for the Dr Bodo Otto Family Association. For photograps relating to Dr. Otto go to Dr Bodo Otto Album on Association webpage.


What causes a person to become interested in finding out about their ancestors? For me, it is more about finding historical information and about the times in which they lived than in glorifying who or what they were. Sure, if your family has been in America as long as mine you too have some ancestors involved in important historical events. Richard Warren arrived on the Mayflower, Dr. Otto served General Washington at Valley Forge and several other direct ancestors including Adam Torrence, Owen Briggs and Wolcott Burnham fought for the freedom of this country from Great Britain. We also have a connection to the Salem Witch Trials and some of my ancestors fought to preserve the Union while others fought to destroy it during the War Between the States as it is called in the South. Others arrived in the country in the 1850s and 60s and eked out a living from the land on the Midwestern prairie. Still others came to Illinois with the railroad or to work in the Chicago waterworks prior to the Chicago Fire of 1871.

As I child I did not know any of this. Wouldn't it have been nice to know that the first locomotive in Chicago that I climbed on as a child at the Chicago Historical Society, now the Chicago History Museum, was kept running by my gt-gt-grandfather. History would have come alive for me as it did many years later.

Most of these folks were just plain people going about their daily life and it was the time in which they lived that put them into the spotlight.

Choo-Choo and other memories

When my parents divorced in 1949 we came to live in Evanston with our grandparents. Shortly afterwards Dad, who was a Naval Officer, was sent to Japan and Korea and sometime between then and Baltimore, he was stationed in California. I have only vague memories of living together as a family - and the years between the divorce and Daddy's marriage to Jean in 1954 are somewhat jumbled.

What I do remember, is that we didn't see him for a long time. However, I have three memories of his visits in Evanston. Do my memories all take place during a 1952 Christmas visit? I think so but do not know for sure.

After returning from Japan, Daddy came to Evanston to spend Christmas with his two little girls. Dad's sister Cora, her husband Bill, and their two little one had recently moved to Palatine and my paternal grandparents and Uncle Oscar came north too to spend Christmas together. Another memory is going downtown to see the Long, Long Trailer starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez. We laughed and laughed. Think I should rent the movie sometime to see if it has stood the test of time.

The last of these memories is going to Des Plaines to eat lunch at a diner. What made the place so special was that the food arrived on a freight train. It was the one and only time I ate there as a child. However, I never forgot that meal. Years later, we took our children there and now it is a favorite of our grandson Jake. There is some talk of it closing since the city wants the land. Before it does, we need to take Ian there too.