Otto Rothley
World War I
Otto Rothley is not a name that Osmond people might recognize, but he is one of the original Osmond American Legion members. He was born in Murray, NE, in 1896. His father, Valentine, was apparently killed in a railroad accident in 1904, at the young age of 43. His mother, Ernestine, was a Kiichler (although it was also spelled “Kuechler” in some records) and had family members here at Osmond. She actually died the year before his father, in 1903, at the even younger age of 39. I didn’t know where Otto went immediately following the deaths of his parents (see more information below), but in 1910, at age 13, he is living with Ernest and Amelia Richter in Rock Bluff, NE. Amelia was his mother’s sister. His older sister, Eva, who was 16 at the time, was living as a servant with C. Harold Richter, who I assume was some relative of Ernest. His younger sister, Anna, was raised by Karl and Pauline Kiichler in Osmond. In June of 1917 when he signed his draft card, he wrote that he was working on a farm near Murray. He was 21 years old, and was described as short, medium build, with blue eyes and brown hair.
His military papers show that he was enlisted July 22, 1918. The information on his Find A Grave page says he served in Company 29, the 163rd Depot Brigade at Camp Dodge, IA.
I found a page dedicated to the 163rd Depot Brigade online. According to their information, in June 1917, the 163rd Depot Brigade was formed at Camp Dodge, a military installation in the city of Johnston, IA. The brigade was the base unit for the 88th Division, which processed new draftees and provided basic training.
The role of depot brigades was to receive and organize recruits, provide them with uniforms, equipment and initial military training, and then send them to France to fight on the front lines. The depot brigades also received soldiers returning home at the end of the war and completed their out processing and discharges.
This web page has a list of person profiles for the soldiers in that unit, and for Otto it read: 02 May 1896 Murray, Cass, Nebraska, United States - 09 Feb 1970 (his birth date and place, and the date of death). If you click on his name on that page, it takes you to a Wikitree listing for Otto, which gives family tree information, an obituary and a short biography, which gave me a little more information about him, such as that he was probably living with his aunt and uncle at Murray since the time of his mother’s death. Also that when he registered for the WWI draft, the farm he was working on was his cousin Frank Mrasek’s. It also includes a couple newspaper articles from the Plattsmouth Journal, telling about the boys from the area who went to Camp Dodge, which included Otto.
Otto was discharged May 21, 1919, and probably moved to the Osmond area (where his sister Anna lived) right after, since he is found in the 1920 census living with the Otto Kiichlers and working as a hired man. Otto Kiichler would have been his cousin, and the son of Karl and Pauline, who raised his sister.
I’m not sure how long Otto stayed in Osmond, but apparently it was long enough for him to be one of the original members of Osmond American Legion, which was organized in 1922.
I then found a brief article in a 1924 Osmond Republican that said “Ernest Schauppner was at Dallas last week looking after his farm. This place will be farmed by Otto Rothley this year and Emil Wortman will soon go up there and put up a set of buildings.” It was probably talking about Dallas, SD, because I found Otto on the 1930 census farming in the Irwin Township area of South Dakota, which is about 15 miles away from Dallas.
Otto married Dellia Lattimore on March 1, 1933, at Hidden Timber, SD. At the time, he was about 37 years old, and she was almost 20 years old.
They moved in 1936 to Weiser, ID, where Otto listed his occupation in the 1940 census as laborer (his obituary says he farmed there). The 1950 census has him listed as a sawyer in, I believe, the wood basket industry (the writing was hard to read). Apparently his wife worked at the same place sorting veneer. One of Otto’s sisters, Anna, also moved to Weiser, ID, at some point.
Otto and Dellia had three children: Mary Ellen, Evelyn June and Ernest Arthur. I found it interesting that although Mary was born in South Dakota and Ernest in Idaho, both of which make sense, the middle daughter, Evelyn, was listed in the 1940 and 1950 censuses as being born in Oregon.
Otto died Feb. 9, 1970, apparently of “terminal pneumonia” according to his death certificate, and is buried in Hillcrest Cemetery at Weiser, ID. His wife lived much longer, passing away in 2001. She is buried next to him in Hillcrest Cemetery.
